About 200 flower species bloom in Atacama after downpours — NDTV World

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, millions of seeds and bulbs of around 200 flower species bloomed after heavy rains in September. The phenomenon occurred amid an intensification of the natural climate phenomenon El Niño, NDTV World reports.

Blooming in one of the driest deserts

The Atacama, described as the driest non-polar desert on Earth, is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes and stretches for about 1,600 kilometers along Chile’s northern coast. Tourists posted photographs of large areas of the desert covered with purple flowers.

Record rainfall was recorded in several regions of Chile in July and August. More than 180 millimeters of rain fell in some areas. César Pizarro, head of Atacama biodiversity at Chile’s forestry service CONAF, said that such rainfall levels had not been recorded since measurements began in the 1950s.

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Prolonged rains in Tokyo

Meanwhile, Japan’s capital, Tokyo, experienced more than a month of continuous rain. The city recorded 35 consecutive rainy days, the longest such streak since 1886. The prolonged bad weather caused vegetable prices to rise and affected the tourism sector.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, central Tokyo received nearly three times the usual amount of rainfall in September. During this period, the sun shone for only 45.8 hours, the second-lowest figure on record; there was no sunshine at all for 14 days.

World Meteorological Organization forecast

The World Meteorological Organization warned of record-high global sea surface temperatures from October through December. The organization also said that the current El Niño is one of the strongest since 1950 and will persist until February 2027.