It's spring in the Southern Hemisphere and even Chile's Atacama Desert is blossoming

THE ATACAMA DESERT, Chile -- Spring has finally arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and, in Chile, even the desert is blossoming. Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Niño weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades. “It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species,” Jorge Carabantes, head of the Protected Areas Department at the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), told The Associated Press. “This is a flowering event that is obviously extraordinary and unusual, very different from other blooms that occur elsewhere on the globe.”The Atacama lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, stretching some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) all the way down the northern coast of Chile.Although flowering is common during the transition from winter to spring, this year the rocky, brownish dunes that make up the desert’s traditional landscape have turned into a vibrant, colorful carpet of wildflowers during a histo...