Heavy Rain in U.S. Virgin Islands, April 22, 2003

Name: Heavy Rain in U.S. Virgin Islands, April 22, 2003
Start: 2003-04-22T11:00
End: 2003-04-22T16:00
Location: U.S. Virgin Islands

April 22, 2003 · NWS SJU · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

S. Virgin Islands produced heavy rains across the northern Virgin Islands from late morning through mid afternoon.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

Low pressure north of the U.S. Virgin Islands produced heavy rains across the northern Virgin Islands from late morning through mid afternoon. Minor flooding of low lying areas and small rock slides were reported.

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 Apr 22, 9:23 AM AST, 1 hour 37 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 22, 9:23 AM AST, 1 hour 37 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
923 AM AST TUE APR 22 2003

.UPDATE...
FLASH FLOOD WATCH JUST ISSUED FOR ALL OF PUERTO RICO AND U.S. VIRGIN
ISLANDS. EVEN MODERATE RAINFALL LATER THIS AFTERNOON WILL LEAD TO
FLASH FLOOD POTENTIAL...AS SOILS ARE SATURATED AND RIVER LEVELS WILL
RESPOND QUICKLY TODAY ESPECIALLY SHOULD ANY HEAVY RAINFALL
DEVELOP...WHICH IS A POSSIBILITY. /DG

.PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...
LITTLE HAS CHANGED FROM THE PREVIOUS DISCUSSION. SATELLITE PICTURES
SHOW A GREAT DEAL OF HIGH CLOUD OUT FLOW FROM SOUTH AMERICA
SPIRALING ANTICYCLONICALLY NORTHWARD AND GETTING CAUGHT IN THE
CONVERGENCE ZONE NEAR PUERTO RICO. SUBTROPICAL STORM ANA CONTINUES
TO MOVE EASTWARD STRETCHING THE FRONT/CONVERGENCE ZONE FARTHER EAST
AT OUR LATITUDE. MODELS SHOW THE MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS BAND
MOVING NORTH DURING THE DAY AND DECREASING. THEREFORE CLOUDS AND
RAINFALL SHOULD BE LESS OVER THE ISLAND BUT IT WILL PROBABLY NOT BE
NOTICEABLE SINCE MOISTURE REMAINS EXCELLENT BELOW 700 MB. LOW-LEVEL
CONVERGENCE WILL SET UP OVER PUERTO RICO AGAIN TODAY AND SHOWERS
WILL BE PREVALENT MOST OF THE AFTERNOON...IN FACT CONSIDERABLE
SHOWER ACTIVITY HAS BEEN PRESENT OVER ST. THOMAS AND ST. CROIX
ALREADY THIS MORNING SINCE THEY ARE CLOSER TO THE BAND THAT WILL BE
RETURNING OVER PUERTO RICO LATER.

AS ANA CONTINUES EASTWARD AND THE CONVERGENCE ZONE MOVES A LITTLE
MORE NORTH SHOWER ACTIVITY WILL ABATE OVER SAN JUAN TUESDAY AND
WEDNESDAY...BUT MAY INCREASE OVER THE WEST...ESPECIALLY AS WINDS
BEGIN TO BECOME MORE EASTERLY.  MODELS SHOW FRIDAY AS SOMEWHAT
WETTER AND THEREFORE COOLER THAN THE REMAINDER OF THE LATTER PART OF
THIS WEEK AND WEEKEND...AND HAVE TENTATIVELY COOLED FRIDAY IN THE
GRIDS...BUT THIS WILL DEPEND ON HOW WELL THE MODELS HAVE RESOLVED
MOIST FLOW IN THE EASTERLIES.

SOME SMALL STREAM FLOODING COULD OCCUR TODAY AND WE WILL AGAIN NEED
TO WATCH THE RIVERS AS GROUND HERE IS QUITE WET AND ALMOST ALL THE
RAIN IS RUNNING OFF. HAVE NOTED THAT FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE FOR 3
HOURS OR LESS IS NOW RUNNING BELOW 1.5 INCHES...AMOUNTS THAT COULD
EASILY BE EXCEEDED IN LOCAL AREAS OF CENTRAL AND NORTHERN PUERTO
RICO. DO NOT EXPECT FLOODING FOR THE VIRGIN ISLANDS TODAY...AS
SHOWERS SHOULD TAPER OFF LATER THIS MORNING.

FOR OUR MARINERS AND SURFERS...NORTHERLY SWELL FROM AROUND ANA IS
ARRIVING AND WILL CONTINUE TO INFLUENCE THE SEAS ON THE NORTHERN
SIDE OF PUERTO RICO AND THE LESSER ANTILLES...BUT WILL TAPER OFF
SLOWLY. SMALL CRAFT WILL NEED TO EXERCISE CAUTION FOR THIS...BUT
OTHERWISE WINDS APPEAR GENERALLY BENIGN. THE WIND PATTERN WILL BE
CHAOTIC THOUGH...SINCE IT IS A MIX OF CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY...LAND AND
SEA BREEZES AND THE POSITION OF THE CONVERGENCE ZONE MOVING ACROSS
THE ISLAND.  SNELL

PRELIMINARY NUMBERS:
SJU WT 087/073 088/073 088 12887
    BBBBB 073/086 073/087 073/088 073/088 073 04422222244
STT WW 084/073 082/073 082 12555
    BBBBB 073/080 073/081 073/082 073/082 073 24422244442

.SJU...
.PR...FFA ALL PR.
.VI...FFA ALL VI.

EQUIPMENT: NO PROBLEMS AT THIS TIME.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SAN JUAN HAS GONE GRAPHICAL TAKE A
LOOK AT OUR NEW GRAPHICAL FORECAST AT:
    HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/DATA/IFPS/SJU/GFE  (ALL LOWER CASE)
ADDITIONAL IMAGES ARE ON THE WAY

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

2 heavy rain. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Rain, St. Thomas/St. John & Islands

When: April 22, 11:00 AM AST to 4:00 PM AST
Where: St. Thomas/St. John & Islands County, St. Thomas
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Heavy Rain, St. Croix

When: April 22, 11:00 AM AST to 4:00 PM AST
Where: St. Croix County, St. Croix
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

What these are

Heavy Rain: Rainfall totals unusual for the place and season that did not produce a flood.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in U.S. Virgin Islands in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in U.S. Virgin Islands, April 2003

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: 5348905, 5348906.