Purple Lightning Explodes Over Santiago as Storm Breaks

Lightning flashed over the eastern skyline of Santiago early on October 20, marking the start of a stormy day as a frontal system swept into central Chile.

X user Maria Angelica Labbe filmed the storm from a high-rise looking east across the city, where a burst of lightning turned the dark clouds purple above apartment blocks and the outline of the Andes foothills. “The storm has begun,” Labbe wrote.

Lightning was reported across the capital from around 4:40 a.m., particularly over the foothills and the north of the Metropolitan Region. Chile’s meteorological service forecast thunderstorms, hail and strong gusts throughout the day, with the heaviest rain expected from late afternoon into the night.

The national disaster agency, Senapred, declared a red alert over landslide risk in ten foothill communes including Las Condes, La Reina, Peñalolén and Lo Barnechea, where classes were suspended as the region braced for its second major storm in a week.