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BiggerNovember 2025 was the driest in four years: causes that broke the cycle of tragedies
This November broke the streak of disasters. Learn how the Dominican Republic experienced its driest month in years.
When November arrives, the Dominican Republic remembers tragedies: floods, streets turned into rivers, and lives lost to torrential rains. However, this November of 2025 broke the pattern: it was the driest in the last four years.
The newspaper HOY consulted the engineer and senior meteorologist Saddan Font-Frías Montero, in charge of the National Forecast Center of the Dominican Institute of Meteorology ( INDOMET ), who presented the accumulated rainfall and explained the behavior of this month.
Saddan Font-Frías Montero, head of the National Forecast Center of the Dominican Institute of Meteorology (INDOMET)
The two most disastrous Novembers: 2022 and 2023
In 2022, nine people died in just four hours as a result of a trough combined with a tropical wave.
The streets turned into rivers, hundreds of vehicles were submerged, and many employees were unable to leave their jobs.
Rainfall totals in 2022.
At least 800 vehicles without full insurance were affected.
That day, 266 millimeters of rain fell, equivalent to the entire November average, according to Indomet.
The stations recorded 232 mm in El Millón, 138 mm in Bella Vista, and 69 mm in Punta Cana, the area that received the least rainfall.
In 2023, another extreme event hit the country, this time associated with potential tropical cyclone number 22 and an upper-level trough.
“ November 18th was the most critical day for the province of Santo Domingo ,” Montero explained.
Map showing accumulated rainfall in 2023.
That year, the rains caused more than 20 deaths, 55 isolated communities, 7,060 people moved to safe areas, and civil protection agencies rescued 2,591.
2024 and 2025: a different behavior
In November 2024, there were rainy periods due to frontal systems, but they did not reach the extreme levels seen in the previous two years.
In 2025, the most recent November, “ was not significant in terms of accumulated rainfall, behaving climatologically as a transition month from a wet season to a dry season or a season of frontal systems,” Montero indicated.
Rainfall totals for 2025.
In November, rainfall totals were below normal at 54% of the country’s stations, especially on the northern coast, where the negative deviations were more pronounced.
Why was this November so dry?
The expert explained that this year, the country did not experience any impact from upper atmospheric troughs (TUTT).
There were also no disturbances, such as tropical waves or low-pressure centers, that would cause extraordinary rainfall.
