The Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile and considered one of the driest places in the world, has been a dazzling carpet of fuchsia wild flowers for weeks, thanks to the heavy rains that fell during the winter months in the southern hemisphere.
[Chile: Santiago Region Remains Under Yellow Alert After Intense Rainfall: Atacama, World’s Driest Desert Experiences a Historic Bloom Thanks to El Niño](https://www.telesurenglish.net/atacama-worlds-driest-desert-experiences-a-historic-bloom-thanks-to-el-nino/)
The so-called flowering desert is a unique spectacle in the world, which this year is experiencing one of its most intense and extensive episodes since 1997, due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
More than two hundred native species, such as the añañuca, the lion’s claw, the guanaco’s paw and the jote’s flower, adorn the red and rocky ground of the desert, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountain range, along about 1,600 kilometers along the northern coast of Chile.
Wildflowers transform one of the driest deserts on Earth.
Chile’s Atacama Desert has burst into colour as wildflowers emerge across its normally barren landscape following exceptional winter rainfall associated with El Niño, triggering what could be its most extensive flowering… pic.twitter.com/EMSowST3vh
— Interesting World (@_fluxfeeds) October 11, 2026
The average annual rainfall in this area without El Niño is 2 millimeters of water, but this year record rainfall has been recorded between July and September in several towns, such as Vallenar, where up to 183.5 millimeters fell.
In addition to the flowering, the storms have also left floods and landslides in several areas of northern Chile, with dozens of homes affected.
El Niño, a natural climatic phenomenon in which the surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean undergo anomalous warming, alters weather patterns throughout the world and causes extreme weather events.
According to the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), the flowering desert this year covers an area equivalent to 23% of the Atacama region, which is equivalent to 17,000 square kilometers, making it one of the most extensive events in recent decades.
Thousands of flower seeds, bulbs and rhizomes remain dormant or in a state of latency under the dry sand throughout the year, awaiting the winter rains.
Most of the flowers will have disappeared by November, but the most drought-resistant species can remain until January.
Authorities believe that the season will close with record tourist numbers, with thousands of people traveling from different parts of the country to see the flowering desert.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.