The Chilean Meteorological Directorate (DMC) preliminarily classified the phenomenon that blew roofs off buildings on Alameda in the municipality of Estación Central, near the Terminal Sur bus station, on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 13, as an EF0 tornado. It is the lowest intensity category on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
As Canal 13 meteorologist Gianfranco Marcone explained to T13, estimated winds reached between 105 and 137 kilometers per hour. "It was indeed a tornado," he said.
According to El Desconcierto, the DMC linked the event to convective clouds with tornadic characteristics and recorded a temperature drop of 10 degrees in less than five minutes. The agency clarified that the classification is not final and that technical analysis continues.
Videos circulated during the day showed part of a roof being torn off and sheets of roofing and other objects being lifted. The sources consulted do not report any injuries or provide a count of fallen trees.
The episode occurred during an afternoon of rain, hail and thunderstorms across much of the Metropolitan Region. Streets were flooded, power was cut and entrances to some Metro stations were closed because of flooding, although trains continued running.
Marcone recalled that, although tornadoes in recent years have been concentrated in the south-central part of the country, the capital already had a recorded case. It occurred on May 14, 1893, in the northern part of the region, in a nonurban area. "Some say it was in Colina and others say it was in Conchalí," he said.
Since the Fujita scale did not exist at the time, the intensity of that event is unknown. According to the Center for Climate and Resilience Research, it was documented in an article in a French scientific journal written by Alphonse Nogues, a professor at the University of Chile's Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
The whirlwind passed through the garden of the home of physician José Joaquín Aguirre, then rector of that university. It knocked down the masonry pillars supporting the grape arbor, 18 according to the research center and 28 according to Nogues's text, and a woman had to hold on to avoid being swept away.
Nogues estimated a diameter of between 25 and 35 meters and described how the tornado broke trees in the first courtyard and hurled the wooden entrance gate about 100 meters. The final classification of the Estación Central event remains pending the DMC's definitive report.
