Violent Hailstorm Turns Quito Streets Into Icy Rivers

A violent downpour of rain and hail buried the streets of Quito’s La Mariscal district under a layer of white ice on Thursday afternoon (October 22), turning roads into fast-flowing rivers of slush that left drivers struggling to get through.

Footage filmed by Pame from a building overlooking the neighborhood shows hail piled across an intersection as murky water rushes over the road. White cars crawl through the icy slush with their brake lights glowing, one sinking up to its wheels as the current churns around it, while a red car sits parked beside an orange storefront as the water and ice pour past.

The hail began covering avenues in the city’s center-north, including 12 de Octubre and Colón and Versalles street, at around 2:40 pm and stopped close to 3:10 pm, but water kept pouring down nearby Luis Mosquera Narváez street, where parked cars were dragged several meters by the current. Shops on Versalles street filled with water and mud, and residents scrambled to bail water out of their homes.

Ecuador’s emergency service ECU 911 said La Comuna, La Gasca and La Mariscal suffered flooding on surrounding roads and that several people were left stranded. Underpasses on 10 de Agosto Avenue and America Avenue were flooded and closed to traffic, and the Quito Metro ran only partially because of the heavy rain and hail.

Ecuador’s national weather institute INAMHI had warned of storms across Pichincha province, saying: “Hail is expected in specific areas. It is forecast to continue in the coming hours.” The storm came just weeks after an extreme hailstorm on October 7, when city crews cleared more than 500 cubic meters of hail from northern Quito.