This Chilean desert has turned into a haven of colourful flowers. Here is why

A desert blanketed with flowers sounds strange, but that's the scene right now in Chile's Atacama desert. Purple flowers are blooming in a desert with hostile conditions and that too during winter. Why is this happening? Known as “desierto florido” (the flowering desert), this occurrence happens every few years. It turns the dry desert into a blooming garden spread over hundreds of kilometres with 200 different species of pink, purple, and yellow flowers.However, it is too early to term this occurrence as the flowering desert since a sufficient number of flowers haven't bloomed in the region yet. More rains are likely to solve that issue.

But the strange thing this year is that it is already happening in July when it usually happens between September and November. It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere right now, so this purple bloom is likely happening because of El Niño.

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El Niño and La Niña

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle dictates how temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean will affect the world. El Niño leads to a rise in the ocean surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, resulting in increased rainfall. This is what happened in the Atacama Desert, so flowers are blooming there right now.

El Niño and La Niña are what impact wind, temperature, rainfall patterns and how the hurricane seasons will unfold.

Atacama is not the driest place on Earth, but it is the driest non polar desert. Some of its regions receive just oneto threemillimetres of precipitation per year. But the blooming event has continued for years here now. Over 15 such flowering deserts have happened in the last 40 years. The government is planning to create a new national park in Copiapó to protect the blooms and the wildlife.