A tornado and an unusual spring hailstorm overwhelm Santiago, Chile

On Tuesday, a spring hailstorm and tornado struck Santiago, Chile, overwhelming the city with flooding and disruptions. The Chilean Meteorological Directorate preliminarily classified the tornado as EF0, the lowest intensity category. The Met Service declared a red alert in the Metropolitan Region, following a mudslide in Las Condes district just five days prior.

The tornado hit a bus terminal in Estación Central, lifting dozens of zinc sheets into the air. As students and workers were leaving, the storm began around 3:30pm and quickly flooded avenues, underground car parks and buildings, in some cases with water coming through roofs. In just two and a half hours, around 20 millimetres of rain fell, with districts like Independencia and Providencia recording 18 millimetres in an hour.

Around 22,000 homes were left without electricity, and many municipal schools suspended classes. The rain is expected to ease overnight, but the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service activated all emergency institutions. Climatologist Alejandro Vial linked the storm to El Niño, noting these weather processes are intensifying due to global warming.

Last week, an atmospheric river intensified by El Niño made Santiago the wettest October on record, causing the October 8 mudslide that left six people injured and damaged 2,000 homes.