Iconic cherry trees in Japan and the U.S. are blossoming earlier as climate change brings warmer temperatures, upending a fixture of the spring calendar in major cities.
No country is more associated with blossoming cherry trees, or sakura, than Japan, and tourists from overseas often try to khbrknews their visits to see the delicate pink petals. The average date at which they start to bloom has moved up 1.2 days per decade since 1953, said Daisuke Sasano, a climate risk management officer at the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Between 1961 and 1990, cherry trees in Tokyo started blooming on March 29 on average. Between 1991 and 2020 that date moved up to March 24, Sasano said.
Last year, the sakura in Tokyo were the first to bloom in all of Japan, on March 14. That was unusual, since they typically bloom first in the southern part of the country and later in the north along what the JMA calls the “cherry blossom front.”
“The fact that Tokyo recorded the earliest start date is due to global warming, compounded with urbanization,” Sasano said, referring to the urban heat island effect, which causes cities to trap heat. Tokyo has warmed 3°C over the past century.
Another forecaster, the Japan Weather Association, predicts Tokyo’s cherry blossoms this year will start blooming on March 21.
The world saw warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter, with January 2024 being the hottest January on record. There’s a correlation between warmer temperatures and earlier starts to springtime blooms, said Theresa Crimmins, director of the USA National Phenology Network, which tracks seasonal changes.
“Spring is most definitely starting earlier than when you were a kid—there is no doubt about that,” said Crimmins, who is also an associate professor in phenology at the University of Arizona. “Many, many studies show clear trends toward warmer temperatures and earlier starts to springtime activity over the longer term.”
Sakura flowers are greeted with much…
