Another early bloom
National Park Service estimates D.C.’S cherry blossoms will reach their peak at the end of March
The National Park Service predicted Wednesday that D.C.’S cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom between March 22 and 25. Peak bloom, defined as the point when 70 percent of the blossoms along the Tidal Basin have flowered, attracts massive crowds every year to visit the flowering trees, a gift from Japan in 1912. The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, which independently estimates the timing of peak bloom, predicted the flowers will reach their peak between March 25 and 29.
According to Capital Weather Gang, the warming climate has led the cherry trees to flower earlier over time. Historical bloom data shows the average peak has advanced about five days, from April 4 to March 31. The earliest peak bloom was recorded on March 15, 1990, and the latest on April 18, 1958. Last year’s peak bloom was on March 21.
“I will say emerging from the third-warmest winter on the record, this has been a particularly challenging year to read the trees and the project peak bloom,” said Jeff Reinbold, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. “Our natural resource manager likened the trees this year, our indicator tree, to a teenager. There’s a lot going on.”
The announcement was met with fanfare Wednesday morning as Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), National Cherry Blossom Festival organizers and city leaders gathered for the annual event. In coordination with peak bloom, the National Cherry Blossom Festival will be held from March 20 to April 16 with more than 30 events, including the opening ceremony, kite festival and parade.
The festival is one of Washington’s most cherished traditions as the pink blossoms mark the transition to spring and the start of the city’s tourism season. Leaders hope the festival and renowned flowers can contribute to the city’s ramped-up marketing efforts to boost tourism back to pre-pandemic levels.
“We know that people are going to come for the blossoms,” Bowser said at a news conference. “They’re going to stay for museums, restaurants, shopping, nightlife, and really enjoy D.C.”
Wednesday’s announcement also marked the end of a four-day, five-city bus tour launched and funded with $100,000 by the city government to promote the festival. A bright pink 45-foot coach bus set out from Boston and made stops in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore to help people plan trips, promote the festival and experience the “best of D.C.” The effort to promote tourism in the city is part of a larger goal to revitalize the D.C’S struggling downtown and boost its revenue base.
“We are only a short ride away from these cities in the Northeast corridor, whether by car, bus, train, or plane. In addition to being the nation’s capital, DC is the best city in the world and home to around 3,800 cherry blossom trees,” Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio, who led the tour, said in a news release. Bowser was not on the bus.
Falcicchio said in an interview that the city will measure the success of the tour by looking at visitor numbers. In 2019, the year before the pandemic derailed programming, the Cherry Blossom Festival attracted 1.6 million guests. The city marked a record year in tourism that year, with 24.6 million visitors generating $896 million in tax revenue, according to the city’s tourism arm, Destination DC.
In 2020, shutdowns and limited travel cut the number of domestic visitors nearly in half. In 2021, those numbers began to recover with 19.1 million visitors, up nearly 6 million from 2020. While 2022 visitor data isn’t yet available, last year’s Cherry Blossom Festival, the first fully in-person festival since 2019, welcomed more than a million residents and visitors to its events.