The bottom line is that while dodging a hurricane is largely the luck of the draw, your odds are pretty good. You should remember, however, that hurricanes are not the only factor in determining whether you'll enjoy sun or rain during your trip.
Tropical storms may lack the wind speeds of hurricanes, for example, but can still pack a powerful punch. In fact, the most deadly storm of the 2005 season was not a hurricane but rather Tropical Storm Jeanne, which caused damaging heavy rainfall in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; mudslides caused by the storm killed more than 600 people in Haiti.
Bands of tropical weather also regularly traverse the region and can bring short-term heavy rains that also can cause dangerous conditions. Most tourists, however, will not be in the more impoverished areas of islands like Puerto Rico and Haiti, where rain-related hazards are most likely to occur. A tropical storm can bring enough sustained rain to put a serious damper on your trip, but tropical waves typically bring just a day of rain as they pass through, says Sheets.
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