It may look like spring but this is winter in this corner of southern Spain.
The usually arid landscape of Almería province has been hit by successive storms.
According to Spain’s national weather agency AEMET, January was one of the wettest on record nationwide, with rainfall around 85 per cent above the long-term average.
While Almería is typically one of the driest provinces in Spain, averaging roughly 30 millimetres of rain in January, this winter brought well-above-normal precipitation.
Seeds that have lain dormant for months – even years – have seized their opportunity and sprung to life.
Everywhere you look in this area of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, dozens of species carpet the ground in yellows, whites and violet.
‘It makes you want to go for a walk’
Local guide Iñaki García normally takes his clients here in summer when the parched earth recalls the Sergio Leone westerns that were shot here.
Now, he's taking advantage of this floral boom to snap photos for his website – proof this land can still surprise.
“People say it's very pretty but it's all so dry and arid – and they're right. That's the climate we're used to in this landscape,” he says. “If it rains a bit, the flowers start to come out beside the roads and this year has been particularly rainy and this is how the countryside looks.”
Moricandia arvensis, a flower known as violet-cabbage, grows in clumps amid huge sweeps of the invasive Oxalis pes-caprae or Bermuda buttercup flowers.
Then there are the white flowers like the impressively tall Asphodelus macrocarpus, or Asphodel, and the smaller but equally beautiful Asphodelus fistulosus, sometimes known as the wild onion.
“It makes you happy, obviously. It's life!” says García. “Living here, you miss the forests with all the dry ground but when you see grasses, colour, spectacular flowers, it makes you want to go for a walk.”
And that's exactly what tourists are doing, many stopping to take scenic shots among the flowers with Genoveses beach as a backdrop.
What impact will high rainfall have on Almería’s ecosystem?
Esther Giménez is a botanist at the University of Almería.
At the nursery and at the botanical garden, she and her colleagues work to conserve threatened native species.
She says the unusual quantity of rain this winter has produced increased amounts of vegetation, including the wildflowers.
Whether or not it ends up being positive for the ecosystem, she says, depends on how much it now rains in spring.
With low average rainfall, this area is susceptible to wildfires.
“If not a single drop of rain falls in spring, we may have more problems than in other years,” she says. “All the annual vegetation and flora that has grown will dry out quickly, and what we’ll have is dry pasture – which could become a problem later on.”
When it comes to wildlife, however, Giménez is unequivocally upbeat.
“This is excellent news for wildlife – a real celebration for the bugs,” she says. “It’s great news for biodiversity in general. In biodiversity, one element of an ecosystem depends on another, and good vegetation and flowering provide food for invertebrates, which in turn feed vertebrates.”
While she is delighted that visitors are discovering this newly colourful landscape, she says she wishes people were better informed.
The sweeping yellow swathes of the invasive Oxalis pes-caprae flowers are, she says, an environmental concern.
“People don’t realise this – they go into the yellow fields and take photos. That’s fine, they’re enjoying the beauty. But they’re also disturbing the natural balance,” she says.
“That monoculture of Oxalis is actually harming the appearance of other species that are native to Cabo de Gata. So yes to tourism – but responsible, sustainable tourism, with awareness.”
