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When you think of deserts, you likely don’t think of large areas of brightly colored flowers. If you visit the Atacama Desert in Chile at the right time, however, that is exactly what you would see.
The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world (if you don’t include polar deserts). When the conditions are just right, however, a native flower blooms, covering the sands.
In most cases, this will happen when the El Nino-Southern Oscillation climate pattern keeps the temperatures right and soaks the sands with just the right amount of water.
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Normally, this desert has just 2 millimeters (.08 inches) of rain each year, with parts with higher elevations getting more. Recently, the conditions were right to trigger a full bloom.
Ana Maria Mujica is a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile’s Faculty of Agriculture & Forestry. In an article about this event, she wrote:
“This blooming coincides with El Niño currents, during which temperatures are warmer, resulting in more evaporation and, consequently, more rainfall. But not with La Niña current, which is colder.”
It is a rare event, occurring just 15 times in the past 40 years. Normally, they happen about every 5-7 years and only in September and November, which is spring in Chile.
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They can happen at other times as well, however. More recently, major blooms took place in 2015, 2017, and 2022. These are the times for major bloom events. In the other years, there will typically be at least some flowers blooming, but far fewer.
The blooms can last anywhere from weeks to months, and will typically end sometime in early November, which is when summer begins. Some of the plants, however, can survive longer with beautiful blooms.
For those lucky enough to be in the area during one of these rare blooms, they will see the vast desert turn from a sandy area to a bright purple that looks lush and beautiful.
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