{
  "id": 14388765,
  "title": "A tornado and an unusual spring hailstorm overwhelm Santiago, Chile",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/a-tornado-and-an-unusual-spring-hailstorm-overwhelm-santiago-chile",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-14T07:01:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MercoPress",
    "slug": "mercopress",
    "url": "https://en.mercopress.com/2026/10/14/a-tornado-and-an-unusual-spring-hailstorm-overwhelm-santiago-chile"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": "An electrical storm with hail, unusual in the middle of spring, flooded streets, homes and businesses in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday and produced a tornado that the Chilean Meteorological Directorate preliminarily classified as EF0, the lowest intensity category. The national disaster prevention and response service declared a red alert in the Metropolitan Region, five days after the mudslide…",
  "key_points": [
    "EF0 tornado classified by Chilean Meteorological Directorate",
    "Red alert declared in Metropolitan Region after mudslide",
    "22,000 homes left without electricity due to heavy rain"
  ],
  "editors_take": "The rapid succession of extreme weather events in Santiago signals a dangerous intensification of seasonal storms driven by El Niño and global warming patterns.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}