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 that hit the Las Condes district.
The tornado struck a bus terminal in Estación Central, in the west of the capital, where the gust lifted dozens of zinc sheets into the air. The storm began around 3:30pm, as students and workers were leaving schools and offices, and within minutes flooded avenues, underground car parks and buildings, in some cases with water coming through the roofs. According to regional governor Claudio Orrego, around 20 millimetres fell in about two and a half hours, and districts such as Independencia and Providencia recorded some 18 millimetres in one hour.
Some 22,000 homes were left without electricity, according to the Superintendency of Electricity and Fuels. Classes were suspended at municipal schools in Santiago, Providencia and Ñuñoa, and Las Condes extended its restricted-movement perimeter because of the risk of further landslides. Interior Minister Claudio Alvarado said “all emergency institutions” had been activated and that the rain was expected to ease overnight.
“Because of global warming, weather processes are intensifying. And we have just had an electrical storm like none ever seen in Santiago,” climatologist Alejandro Vial told the newspaper El País, linking the episode to El Niño.
Last week, an atmospheric river intensified by El Niño made this the wettest October on record in the Chilean capital and caused the October 8 mudslide in San Carlos de Apoquindo, which left six people injured and around 2,000 homes damaged.
Último Minuto @Senapred decreta Alerta Roja para la Región Metropolitana por evento Meteorologico debido a fuertes lluvias, granizos y tormentas eléctricas, reportan calles anegadas, voladura, imágenes de voladura de techo del Terminal Sur de buses en Estación Central @biobio https://t.co/CITvbinqR5
— IEC-180 CONTROL STGO (@fdo2000) October 13, 2026