Name: Funnel Cloud in Puerto Rico, August 10, 2002
Start: 2002-08-10T13:00
End: 2002-08-10T13:15
Location: Puerto Rico

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
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.

A spotter sighted a funnel cloud near Moca.

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 Aug 10, 10:00 AM AST, 3 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 10, 10:00 AM AST, 3 hours before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
1000 AM AST SAT AUG 10 2002

BASIC DESCRIPTION OF THE OVERALL LARGE SCALE SYNOPTIC SITUATION WELL
DESCRIBED IN PREVIOUS DISCUSSION. JUST WANT TO ADD THAT LOOKING AT
THE LOW LEVEL VORTICITY FIELD ASSOCIATED WITH THE WAVE...NOW ROUGHLY
LOCATED ALONG 56 TO 57 WEST...SHOWS THAT MOST OF THE ENERGY OF THE
WAVE SHOULD PASS JUST TO THE NORTH OF THE LOCAL AREA AND THE MAIN
AFFECT OF THE WAVE WILL BE TO BRING LOW LEVEL MOISTURE INTO THE
AREA.

FOR CURRENT CONDITIONS...12Z SOUNDING SHOWS LOW LEVEL MOISTURE UP TO
ABOUT 600 MB...CONSISTENT WITH MODEL DEPICTION. SO WITH PRESENCE OF
UPPER LEVEL TROUGH AND LOCAL ISLAND EFFECTS THERE SHOULD BE SOME
ACTIVE WEATHER AND CONVECTION TODAY...ESPECIALLY ACROSS PUERTO RICO.
ALTHOUGH SOUNDING WAS NOT AS UNSTABLE AS ANTICIPATED GIVEN THE
OVERALL SYNOPTIC SCENARIO. BUT NO CAP INDICATED IN SOUNDING EITHER.
THEREAFTER...SEEMS REASONABLE TO EXPECT SHORT LIVED DRY SLOT
OVERNIGHT AND EARLY SUNDAY IN ADVANCE OF THE WAVE...BUT WAVE
BRINGING IN LOW LEVEL MOISTURE SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY WITH
ANTICIPATED ENHANCEMENT TO SHOWER ACTIVITY.

FOR COASTAL CONDITIONS...GUIDANCE CONTINUES TO SHOW LOCAL SEAS
INCREASING TO ROUGHLY 4 TO 5 FEET LATE MONDAY INTO TUESDAY.

EQUIPMENT:  NO PROBLEMS ATTM.

.SJU...
.PR....NONE.
.VI....NONE.

DIEHL

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

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

Event by event

1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.

Funnel Cloud, Mayaguez and Vicinity

When: August 10, 1:00 PM AST to 1:15 PM AST
Where: Mayaguez and Vicinity County, Moca
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

What these are

Funnel Cloud: A rotating column of cloud extending from a thunderstorm that did not reach the ground.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Puerto Rico in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Puerto Rico, August 2002

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: 5313152.