10-minute tornado hits Los Ángeles, Chile

Yesterday, 30th of May, in the middle of the storm that has been raging over the country, a tornado hit the southern city of Los Ángeles. The tornado formed around 18:00 and travelled about 3km in the 10 minutes it lasted, blowing roofs away, breaking windows and even rolling over a truck. The incident left around 6500 homes without electric power, 21 houses with severe damage, and at least 10 without a roof. According to Onemi, 16 people were injured, but none died. Additionally, a watersprout (an event similar to a tornado but formed over water) hit Yungay, Región de Ñuble, damaging 42 houses and injuring 168 people.

Tornadoes are an unusual phenomenon in the country, but according to meteorologists it is not as rare as people might think. However, the tornado of yesterday was among the strongest ever recorded, and caused much more damage than previous tornadoes. According to experts the frequency of these rare events has grown recently, and just yesterday two of these were seen in separate locations. This climate is not typical of Chile, and I believe it might be linked to climate change, given the drought and strange overall weather that the country has had in the last decade. What do you think? Could these unusual events be linked to climate change, or are they simply coincidence?

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