Washington DC's cherry blossoms reached peak bloom on March 21. They are now done for the year. You can find the most updates from the 2022 bloom here.
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The Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang have announced their initial peak bloom prediction for 2022. They predict a peak bloom around March 24, “or within a five-day window of March 22 and 26.” That's about a week earlier than the average over the past few decades. They point particularly to the mild February–about 2.5 degrees warmer than normal–and especially warm temperatures last week (if your pollen allergies seemed to kick in last week, it wasn't your imagination–apparently the warm temperatures prompted the trees to release abnormally high levels of pollen for this time of year). You can find more detail on their rationale here.
The National Park Service will be announcing their initial prediction later this morning. So stay tuned!
Around the Tidal Basin, there's still not much to see just yet. Some of the trees have green buds starting to poke through, but most of the trees aren't quite there yet.
How It Looks at the Tidal Basin This Morning
Here are some shots I took at the Tidal Basin to give a sense of how it looks this morning.
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Will the Tidel Basin be blocked by fencing this year?
I can’t speak for the National Park Service, but it seems likely that there’ll be considerably fewer restrictions than the past couple of years. There is no sign of any fencing going up yet, and with mask requirements easing in DC, I’m not sure that they would decide to take on the hassle and expense of fencing off the area again.
UPDATE: Having just watched the Festival’s press conference, which included NPS representatives, the message was very clear that DC is open for business again that visitors are being encouraged to visit. Which further suggests moving away from any fencing, etc.