NWS San Juan Puerto Rico

The National Weather Service is an agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is a part of the Department of Commerce. The mission of the National Weather Service is to provide weather forecasts and hazardous weather warnings to the public. We maintain a constant eye on the weather across the country 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. A staff of over 4,500 skilled employees accomplish this mission with the assistance of high-speed computer networks, an orbiting fleet of weather satellites in space, and ground-based radar systems. The San Juan forecast office is staffed 24 hours a day with at least one meteorologist and one hydro-meteorological technician. This office provides forecasts for users across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the United States. One of our major duties in this office is the coordination with the National Hurricane Center and dissemination of products, statements, watches and warnings during the Hurricane Season. Several times each day, forecasts are prepared in both English and Spanish for use by the general public, broadcast media, and the aviation industry.

Our new state-of-the-art WSR 88-D Doppler Radar is a valuable resource to aid in alerting the public to potentially dangerous weather.

The Staff consists of 10 meteorologists, 6 hydro-meteorological and meteorological technicians, 2 electronics technicians, an electronics systems analyst, an information technology officer, a service hydrologist, a secretary, a data acquisition program manager, a warning coordination meteorologist, a science and operations officer and a meteorologist in charge.

The history of this NWS office dates back to the past century. Our forecast area of responsibility includes all of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands and the coastal waters surrounding this area out to 20 nautical miles. San Juan is located on the Northern coast of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. There are numerous links to information about Puerto Rico on the internet. The U.S. Virgin Islands are located about 50 miles east of Puerto Rico.