The Appearance of blossom on trees is traditionally said to mark the beginning of spring and the end of winter. Trees do only come into bloom in mild weather, but as anyone who lives in a temperate part of the world knows, cold weather will often return after the blossom appears! The dates on which blossom appears have been recorded in some weather records for many years, which helps to show what the weather was like in the past.
The cherry blossoms will be blooming again soon around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., as they have every year since Japan shipped its arboreal gift of more than 3,000 cherry trees to the United States in 1912. And for this year, anyway, climate change won’t have much effect on the timing.
The projected peak days for 2019 are right around the historic average of the past several decades, according to the park service. The agency determined the projected dates after analyzing a variety of data, including winter temperatures and the forecast for March, according to NPS acting superintendent Jeffrey Rein bold. He said that the development of the blossoms will depend on variable weather conditions.
Experts at the park service and elsewhere say that local conditions of daylight and heat are the main factors that determine the blooming time in temperate ecosystems. However, they say that although bloom times can vary from year to year because of those local conditions, the long-term trends clearly show the impact of climate change on the trees in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
Picture Credit : Google