Flowers Bloom in the Atacama Desert – in Pictures
The Atacama desert, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the Pacific coast west of the Andes mountains, is experiencing a rare springtime bloom of flowers after El Niño brought the heaviest rainfall in two decades earlier this year. The desert is usually one of the driest places on Earth.
Rare Cyclone Heads for Arabia
Citizens of the arid Arabian Peninsula were bracing for strong winds, a storm surge, and extreme rainfall as Category 4 Cyclone Chapala was forecast to make landfall in Yemen. Only two tropical cyclones have hit the Peninsula since reliable records started in 1979, and Chapala has the potential to be the strongest of them all.