Learn Spanish (Latin America): No viajamos por la tormenta. - We don't travel because of the storm.

In Spanish, por placed directly before a noun (like la tormenta) means "because of" or "due to". It tells us the cause or reason for something. You use porque (because) when you follow it with a full phrase that includes a conjugated verb, such as porque hay una tormenta (because there is a storm).

Is it ever correct to say porque de la tormenta to mean "because of the storm"?

No, that is a common trap for English speakers! While "because of" might feel like it should translate word-for-word to porque de, Spanish doesn't use that combination. Always just use por + the noun to say "because of".

Since por can also mean "through", could this sentence mean "We don't travel through the storm"?

Yes, it absolutely could! Because por is used for both "cause/reason" and "movement through a place," the sentence has a double meaning out of context. In real life, the rest of the conversation would make it obvious whether they canceled the trip or were just avoiding driving through the storm itself.

Doesn't viajamos also mean "we traveled" in the past tense?

Spot on. For regular -ar and -ir verbs, the nosotros (we) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the simple past tense (preterite). Depending on the context, this sentence could easily be translated as "We didn't travel because of the storm."