Puerto Rico, 2001

Tornado in Puerto Rico, June 3, 2001

June 3, 2001 · NWS SJU · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Emergency Managers indicated that a weak tornado affected a community in Anasco. Several houses had their roofs detached and their fences knocked down.

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS SJU wrote it up.

Emergency Managers indicated that a weak tornado affected a community in Anasco. Several houses had their roofs detached and their fences knocked down. In addition, a power company station exploded.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS San Juan, PR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 3, 2:10 PM AST, 3 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 3, 2:10 PM AST, 3 hours before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
210 PM AST SUN JUN 3 2001

DECENT MID-LEVEL (ABOVE 500MB) ISENTROPIC LIFT EXPECTED TO OCCUR
ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH TONIGHT IN ADVANCE OF TROUGH TO OUR WEST.
THIS WILL ALLOW THUNDERSTORMS TO LINGER ON A BIT LONGER TONIGHT THAN
NORMALLY BE EXPECTED. HAVE ISSUED FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR NORTHEAST
PUERTO RICO TO EL YUNQUE AND WITHOUT RADAR WILL MOST PROBABLY NEED
TO ISSUED ONE FOR CENTRAL INTERIOR...WEST INTERIOR AND WEST PUERTO
RICO.

BREAKDOWN IN WEAK HIGH PRESSURE ACROSS LOWER ATMOSPHERE
EXPECTED...THROUGH PERIOD. AS THE HIGH PRESSURE DISPLACES ITSELF
NORTHWESTWARD AND WEAKEN EVEN FURTHER...TROUGHING BETWEEN HIGH TO
THE NORTH AD TRAILING HIGH FURTHER EAST WILL RESULT IN AN
INCREASINGLY NORTHERLY COMPONENT OF THE WINDS THROUGH PERIOD. THIS
WILL NOT BE A RESULT OF THE TROPICAL WAVE BUT A SHIFTING OF THE HIGH
PRESSURE RIDGE.THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT. AS THE SURFACE WINDS BECOMES
MORE NORTHERLY THIS WILL BRING AN IN INCREASE IN MOISTURE ACROSSS
THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS AND THE EASTERN HALF OF PUERTO RICO...FROM
CONVECTION THAT HAS BEEN OCCURRING AROUND 60W MOST OF THE EVENING.
THE CLOUDS AND SHOWERS AROUND 60W ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE NEARLY AS
INTENSE AS WHAT IS OCCURRING THERE NOW.

WITH THE DISPLACEMENT OF THE HIGH PRESSURE VERY WEAK TROUGHING IN
THE LOWER LEVELS OF THE ATMOSPHERE SHOULD AT LEAST APPROACH THE U.S.
VIRGIN ISLANDS BY MONDAY AND PUERTO RICO BY MONDAY NIGHT...RESULTING
IN AN INCREASE IN MOISTURE AND SURFACE WINDS OF AROUND 15 KNOTS IN
THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS AND EASTERN PR. DO NOT EXPECT THIS TO LAST
TO LONG AS INCOMING TROPICAL WAVE WILL INTERACT WITH WEAK TROUGHING
AND THE RESULTING ELONGATED INVERTED TROUGHING WILL RELOCATED
EASTWARD TO ACROSS THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS BY MONDAY NIGHT.

.PRELIMINARY NUMBERS...
SJU BB 078/088 077/089 077 07344
STT BB 079/088 078/089 078 07434=

EQUIPMENT: NO SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS AT THIS TIME.

.SJU...
.PR...FFA PRZ001-002.
.VI...NONE.

TIRADO

WRITTEN TEXT FORECASTS (IN ENGLISH OR SPANISH)...SATELLITE IMAGERY
...DOPPLER RADAR DATA...AND A VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF WEATHER INFORMAFTION
CAN BE FOUND AT THE NWS SAN JUAN WEB SITES AT:

HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/SJU (ALL LOWER CASE).

    OR

HTTP://WWW.UPR.CLU.EDU/NWS (ALL LOWER CASE).

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Mayaguez and Vicinity

When
June 3, 5:10 PM AST to 5:15 PM AST
Where
Mayaguez and Vicinity County, Anasco
Rating
F0
Path length
0.5 mi
Path width
15 yd
Property damage
$20,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER

What these are

Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Puerto Rico in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Puerto Rico, 2001Warnings in Puerto Rico, June 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5251032.