Picture-perfect cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, but rough weather looms ahead.

'Rain, gusty winds and temperatures near or below freezing are in the forecast, which doesn’t bode well for the D.C. cherry blossoms, now a few days past peak bloom. Predicted lows near 30 downtown Thursday night and Friday night shouldn’t kill the blossoms, but winds gusting near or past 30 mph Thursday and Friday will probably start blowing petals off the blossoms.

Unusually warm weather late last week and this past weekend propelled the Yoshino cherry trees at the Tidal Basin from stage 4, peduncle elongation, to peak bloom in only four days. Peak bloom occurred on March 28 after near-record warmth last week accelerated the bloom.

This year’s peak bloom occurred four days ahead of the 30-year-average date of April 1 and almost a week ahead of the 100-year-average date of April 3. March 15, 1990, marks the earliest peak bloom on record, while April 18, 1958, was the latest. Last year, peak bloom occurred on March 20, tied for the third-earliest on record.

The trend toward earlier peak blooms has been even more pronounced in Japan, where the cherry blossoms peaked this past Friday, the earliest in more than 1,200 years of records.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/03/31/picture-perfect-cherry-blossoms-tidal-basin-rough-weather-looms-ahead/?