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Don’t be fooled: this pink meadow is actually the world’s driest desert — which has been stirred to life by climate change.
The Atacama desert in Chile is the driest non-polar desert on Earth, but occasionally this barren wasteland likes to make a grand spectacle.
When heavy rains fall during the Southern Hemisphere’s spring (October to November), the flowers ‘hibernating’ beneath the surface of the desert suddenly bloom with an explosion of color, thirsty for water.
This year’s bloom was brought on by the same weather patterns that caused Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful hurricane to make landfall on record. “The intensity of blooms this year has no precedent,” Daniel Diaz, the National Tourism Service director in Atacama, told the EFE news agency.
“And the fact that it has happened twice in a same year has never been recorded in the country’s history. We are surprised.”
Diaz attributes the incredible phenomenon to climate change, which locals have been thankful for as an expected 20,000 tourists are due to flock to the region to witness this extraordinary scene for themselves.
