One of the driest deserts on the planet has temporarily turned into a flowering garden. In northern Chile, the sands of the Atacama have been covered with white and purple flowers — a rare sight that is already attracting tourists.
The cause was heavy rains linked to El Niño — a climate phenomenon in which surface waters in the equatorial Pacific warm, affecting weather in different regions of the world.
Beneath the ground, the Atacama has stored seeds and bulbs of about 200 plant species for years. Once they received moisture, they woke up. In some areas, more than 180 mm of precipitation fell, and the flowering area may reach 15,000 hectares.
