2018 Cherry Blossom Watch

The cherry blossoms are essentially done now. You can still find some flowers on the trees, but the trees are leafing out.

The cherry blossom snow is coming down more steadily now as petals get knocked off in the breeze. The trees aren’t looking as white and fluffy as they had been, especially up close, but as of late this morning they were still looking pretty.

A week after peak bloom the cherry blossoms are still looking very pretty, but if you look up close you can clearly see that they’re past their prime now. More petals have been coming off, and more green leaves are poking through.

Petals are starting to come off, but for now it’s a very gentle pace. The cold weather has slowed development down and kept the green leaves at bay. So the cherry blossoms are still holding up well and looking beautiful.

The cherry blossoms are still going strong and looking lovely. Some light showers overnight didn’t have much effect, and the petals are coming off only very slowly for now.

The cherry blossoms are still holding up well and looking beautiful. You have to look closely to see that they’re moving past their prime.

Despite a chilly breeze, this morning at the Tidal Basin is quite spectacular, and the cherry blossoms are looking fluffy and full and magnificent. It’s a prime viewing day.

The snow and rain have mostly been no-shows. It’s cold and breezy, but the trees are doing just fine.

The weather is dull and kind of dreary, but the trees are still looking beautiful.

The rain and wind yesterday barely grazed the cherry blossoms, and they’re currently in their prime.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now. While not every tree is fully out, most are. They’re on track for peak bloom in the coming days, and the National Park Service yesterday tweaked their peak bloom prediction again, bringing it forward to Thursday through Sunday (April 5-8).

The blossoms themselves are shaping up nicely for later in the week. Many of them are in full bloom now, although there are still some holdouts that haven’t started properly yet.

Sunny and warm conditions through the weekend brought more flowers out, and they’re looking lovely as they move into full bloom. It now looks increasingly likely that peak bloom will come ahead of the predicted dates.

If you head down to the Tidal Basin this weekend you won’t have any trouble whatsoever finding cherry blossoms out. The warm weather of the past few days has worked its magic in bringing more flowers out.

It’s now getting much easier to find at least a few blossoms coming out. Quite a few of the trees are starting to show a few flowers each, and while it’s still only a tiny proportion of the total, they’re easy to find all the way around the Tidal Basin.

The slow trickle continues. It’s becoming a little easier to find some scattered flowers out this morning, but most of them aren’t there yet. But if milder temperatures arrive later in the week, as expected, it will inject some energy into their progress.

Ever so slowly we’re starting to see some movement. The snow has gone, and there are more flowers just gradually starting to peek out.

It has been snowing steadily, and there’s a layer of wet, slushy snow around the Tidal Basin. But it’s not a threat to the cherry blossoms.

There’s not much new on the trees since yesterday, but I’ve been getting a lot of questions about things like how this week’s weather forecast will affect things and how this coming weekend is shaping up. So I’m focusing below mostly on answering some of the most common questions.

It’s shaping up as a sparkling spring day, but unfortunately there aren’t many cherry blossoms to see yet.

Progress has been brought to a crawl by the cool temperatures. If you look very closely, they are making headway, but it’s very, very slow.

There’s been steady progress, but with the continuing cool temperatures it has been slow. There are some flowers starting to come out on the so-called indicator tree, but it’s not yet in full bloom. The vast majority still have some work to do before they’re getting really close to blooming.

There’s been some progress, but it’s at a gentle pace in these cool temperatures. The indicator tree is just starting to show some puffy white blossoms that are ready to pop.

The buds are still doing their thing and still have a way to go before blooming. There’s some unsettled weather coming up over the next week or so, but it shouldn’t pose too many problems for the cherry trees.

The cherry trees around the Tidal Basin have emerged mostly unscathed from the very strong winds we saw yesterday.

Around the Tidal Basin, the buds are clearly making progress. And, as usual, the so-called indicator tree is marching ahead of the others. It’s typically a week to 10 days ahead. Stay tuned for the National Park Service peak bloom prediction to be issued later this morning.

The National Park Service determined that 70 percent of the buds had reached the “Green Buds” stage on February 25. That is just a day later than last year and is earlier than the average.

It has been soggy and foggy but still warmer than average. More of the green buds are starting to come through now.

The green buds are just starting to poke through, and unusually warm weather is coaxing out some of the area’s other early blooming flowers.

There’s not much to see on the trees yet, but things will start picking up in coming weeks. The National Park Service will be announcing their peak bloom prediction on March 1.

The short version is that there’s still not much to report. The cherry trees are still in their winter mode and aren’t showing any signs of the buds developing yet. No peak bloom forecasts have been issued yet. Expect those to start coming in about 4 to 5 weeks.

The first update in the 2018 Cherry Blossom Watch! For now, the Tidal Basin is covered in ice and there’s nothing to see in terms of bud development. It’s still too early to have any real idea of when the cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom in 2018, but here’s a rundown of where things stand.