Thunder Shakes Santiago Awake as Violent Storm Rolls In

Booming thunder woke residents of Santiago’s Las Condes district before dawn on October 20 as an electrical storm swept over the Chilean capital ahead of a major frontal system.

X user Cata Olivares filmed the storm from a balcony after being woken by “super loud” thunder at around 4:10 a.m. Purple flashes of lightning repeatedly lit up the sky behind the area’s apartment towers and the empty streets below.

Lightning was reported across the city from around 4:40 a.m., particularly toward the foothills and the north of the Metropolitan Region. Chile’s meteorological service forecast thunderstorms, hail and strong wind gusts for the whole region during the day, with the most intense rain expected from late afternoon.

Las Condes was one of ten communes placed on red alert by the national disaster agency, Senapred, over the risk of landslides, with classes suspended and a security perimeter set up around the area hit by a mudslide during heavy rain the previous week.