Cherry Blossom Watch Update: February 9, 2022

Welcome to the 2022 Cherry Blossom Watch!

It’s a still, sunny, and crisp winter’s morning at the Tidal Basin.

No peak bloom forecasts have been issued yet. The National Park Service will announce their initial peak bloom forecast on March 1.

So far, the area’s winter has swung from much warmer than normal (December) to much cooler temperatures in January. February has started out a little cooler than normal.

Looking ahead over the next couple of weeks, the National Weather Service is thinking that we might see temperatures a little above average.

(For any new readers, here’s why we care about temperatures: warmer than normal temperatures bring the bloom earlier; colder temperatures delay it. The historical average bloom is around the last few days of March into the first few days of April, but it varies year to year and can end up well outside that range.)

Here’s how we’re tracking so far this winter. The red line is the historical average temperature. You can see that the winter started above average, but then dipped (and stayed) below average for several weeks.

Here’s a different way of looking at it, with the center line representing the historical average.

How It’s Looking at the Tidal Basin This Morning

Here are some photos of how it’s looking at the Tidal Basin this morning. For comparison, here’s how things were looking about three years ago almost to the day.

There’s not much to see on the trees yet. About two-thirds of the Tidal Basin is covered with a thin layer of ice, but that’ll melt quickly over the warmer temperatures in the coming days. And the newly cleaned dome of the Jefferson Memorial is looking magnificent (and no more scaffolding!).

And, for fun, some black and white shots (also taken this morning). If you’re a fan of black and white, I have more from around the area here.

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