WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Park Service announced the peak bloom date for the capital’s iconic, pastel pink cherry blossoms.
Cherry blossoms and the cherry trees they grace have grown in Washington, D.C. for over 100 years. The trees came from Japan and were gifted to the U.S. as a sign of friendship.
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Over the years, the cherry trees and their blossoms have become a sign of spring in the nation’s capital – a time when the city trades out its red, white and blue for pastel pink.
This year, peak bloom time is predicted for March 22-25, Jeff Reinbold, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks of the National Park Service, announced Wednesday during a press event for this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival.
Peak bloom time is defined as when 70% of the blossoms on the Yoshino Cherry trees, one of the most common species of cherry trees around the capital, are open.
While forecasting the peak bloom dates is an annual tradition, Reinbold noted that forecasting this year’s peak bloom involved factoring in unusual weather in DC.
“Emerging from the third-warmest winter on record, this has been a particularly challenging year to read the trees and project the peak bloom,” he said. “Due to the warmer than average temperatures, the trees never reached their winter dormancy, which is the starting point for when the blooms will emerge.”
He noted that the indicator tree, a Yoshino cherry tree that blooms about 7-10 days before most of the other cherry trees, is currently showing different phases of blossoms. In fact, parts of the tree had already begun to bloom in mid-February.
“A result of the wide variations in temperatures and the weather that we’ve seen – from last week’s 80 degrees to snow within 24 hours, particularly cool nights that are offsetting the warm day that we’re seeing – all of them have effects on when the trees will bloom,” Reinbold said.
He noted that once the trees have bloomed, peaking between March 22 and 25, they may keep their blossoms for 10 days or more.