Chile: This Chilean desert is the driest on the planet, but it's covered in flowers

Chile - July 17, 2024 The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the driest places on Earth, but swathes of its usually arid sand are occasionally covered by a colorful proliferation of white and purple flowers. The Atacama Desert is known as the Florida Desert because every few years it becomes covered in flowers, when the right levels of rainfall and temperature coincide to awaken the desert's dormant seeds. This usually happens in spring, but the current bloom is occurring unusually early (in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere) thanks to rains caused by El Nino, a natural weather phenomenon that influences the global climate.