The tornado that lifted roofs near Terminal Sur in Estación Central on Tuesday, October 13, has a documented precedent in Santiago: a whirlwind that crossed Conchalí on May 14, 1893.
According to El Mostrador, the Chilean Meteorological Directorate (DMC) determined in a preliminary analysis that the phenomenon "could be an EF0 tornado", the lowest intensity category on the Enhanced Fujita scale. That category entails winds of between 105 and 137 kilometers per hour.
The episode occurred during the frontal system that brought rain, thunderstorms and hail to the capital. According to El Desconcierto, part of a roof came loose in the Alameda area, and sheets of roofing and other objects flew through the air. The outlet added that the temperature dropped 10 degrees in less than five minutes. The DMC is still studying the event, and the classification is not yet final.
What is new this time is the audiovisual footage. The most widely circulated recording shows the whirlwind over the bus terminal, dragging roofs through the air.
The 1893 account was signed by French academic Alphonse Nogues, a professor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile, in the scientific journal Actes de la Société Scientifique du Chili. The tornado formed in Conchalí, then an estate and farm belonging to physician José Joaquín Aguirre, a politician and rector of that university.
Nogues described a whirlwind moving from north to south with an estimated diameter of between 25 and 35 meters. Its force knocked down 28 masonry pillars supporting a grape arbor. It then passed the houses, turned back, broke the trees in the first courtyard and dragged the wooden entrance gate about 100 meters.
The damage was solely to property. The academic recorded that a woman had to hold on as best she could to avoid being lifted into the air in a house's courtyard. He also noted that the trees were not uprooted but broken a few meters above the ground.
Outside the capital, tornadoes have been more frequent. In July, one crossed El Carmen and San Ignacio in the Ñuble Region, causing property damage and injuring one person. In 2025, another struck downtown Puerto Varas.
In 2019, a waterspout that became a tornado hit Talcahuano and Concepción, leaving two dead and dozens injured. El Mostrador reports that Concepción also recorded the country's deadliest episode: 27 people died when the winds swept through the city center. The source does not specify the date of that event.
The final category of the Estación Central tornado will depend on the Chilean Meteorological Directorate's final assessment.
