The Atacama is one of the driest places on Earth – yet unusually heavy rains have now transformed the barren landscape into a colorful sea of flowers. The climate phenomenon El Niño is also playing a role in this.
Image: Cristobal Basaure Araya/ZUMA/IMAGO
Few plants can survive in the Atacama – but now, this large cactus is surrounded by a sea of purple and white blossoms. The phenomenon of the blooming desert occurs at irregular intervals of roughly five to ten years, following unusually heavy rainfall during the Chilean winter months of June to August.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance
The Atacama is the driest desert outside the polar regions — sometimes decades pass without a single drop of rain falling. However, record amounts were measured in 2026: Some 15 to 30 millimeters of precipitation per square meter are sufficient for a desert bloom, yet that year, some regions received more than three times that amount.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance
The desert floor comes to life: The rare moisture causes billions of seeds lying dormant in the desert sand to germinate and eventually bloom. At the start of spring in the southern hemisphere, more than 200 different plant species then carpet the otherwise barren landscape with their red, pink, white, and yellow blossoms.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance
A massive desert bloom is almost always triggered by El Niño: This year’s historically strong climate phenomenon drives unusually warm, moist air masses across the Pacific, bringing large amounts of precipitation to the Atacama. In higher-altitude regions of the desert, it even snowed in August.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance
The plants native to the Atacama are masters of survival: Only species adapted to the extreme climatic conditions can survive here. The majority of the desert’s flowers and herbs are endemic, meaning this is the only place where they grow in the wild. Visitors are not permitted to leave the paths or pick the flowers.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance
In 2022, the Atacama experienced a particularly intense bloom, drawing large numbers of sightseers. To protect the highly sensitive desert flora, the Chilean government established the Desierto Florido (“Blooming Desert”) National Park a year later, covering an area of well over 57,000 hectares. The park aims to preserve biodiversity and the fragile seed banks in the soil for the long term.
Image: Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu/picture alliance6 images1 | 66 imageshttps://p.dw.com/p/5MS6g
