Rainwater chemistry is well documented worldwide but the components of extreme rain events are not well characterized. This is despite an increasing trend in intensity and frequency of extreme events and the potential excess loading of essential elements to ecosystems that can rival total annual loading. As extreme rain events become more prevalent, an assessment of the impacts imposed by hurricane/tropical storm events can be valuable for future resiliency strategies. Here the chemical characteristics of hurricane/tropical storms and normal rain events from 2008 to 2019 were acquired from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). It was found that the average pH of hurricane/tropical storm events (5.36) was slightly higher (p < 0.05) than that of normal events (5.14). About 81% of 164 hurricane/storm samples and 85% of 5602 normal rain samples had pH below 5.6. NH₄⁺ was the dominant neutralization ion for both hurricane/tropical storm and normal rain events. On average, one single hurricane/tropical storm event can deposit 8% of yearly rain volume in the hurricane affected region. It can also deposit an annual mean of 6% of Ca²⁺, 10% of Mg²⁺, 10% of K⁺, 11% of Na⁺, 4% of NH₄⁺, 3% of NO₃^-, 11% of Cl^- and 5% of SO₄^2-. Hurricane Barry alone contributed 52%, 56% and 55% of yearly deposition of Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and Cl^-, respectively, in 2019. Tropical Storm Colin contributed 47%, 19%, 15% and 15% of yearly deposition of Ca²⁺, NH₄⁺, NO₃^- and SO₄^2-, respectively, in 2016. Investigating ionic composition via principal component analysis suggests five potential sources (i.e. marine, crust, fossil fuel combustion, agriculture and biomass burning) contribute to the chemical composition of rain. Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and Cl^- were primarily marine-originated in both normal and hurricane/tropical storms events. Hurricane/tropical storms events could bring considerable sea-salt SO₄^2- and Ca²⁺ whereas biomass burning and crust dust from wind erosion was the dominant source of SO₄^2- and Ca²⁺, respectively, in normal rain events. Extreme rain events are associated with high wind speeds and suspend soil materials in the air, subsequently depositing crust-originated ions (i.e. K⁺ and Ca²⁺). Agriculture and fossil fuel were the primary sources of NH₄⁺ and NO₃^-, respectively, in both rain events. Results will provide a comprehensive assessment of the rainwater chemistry of hurricane/tropical storms and insight to expected ecosystem loading for future extreme events.