Early peak bloom predicted for cherry blossoms

Although the calendar says it’s winter, the Washington area weather feels more like spring. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that D.C.’s 100th anniversary cherry blossom bloom is expected to come early this year. “My forecast [for the peak bloom] is sometime between March 24 and March 31,” the National Park Service’s chief horticulturist Rob DeFeo said at a packed news conference Thursday morning.

DeFeo said that the unnaturally warm weather coupled with moist ground guided his early prediction. The average peak date, when 70 percent of the blossoms around the Tidal Basin are open, falls on April 4.