It's still too early to guess with much confidence when the 2023 bloom will be. But we've seen a much-warmer-than-normal January, and long-range forecasts suggest above-average temperatures continuing as we get deeper into February (after a short very cold spurt at the beginning of the month).
On average, Washington DC's cherry blossoms bloom around late-March into early April, but the precise timing varies year to year depending on the local temperatures in the leadup to the bloom. You can find general information on the 2023 bloom to help plan your visit here.
Welcome to the first Cherry Blossom Watch update for 2014.
As you can see, the trees are still firmly in winter mode and a long way from where they'll be in the spring. In the close-ups, you can see that the very early buds are on the trees. They'll stay in that very early stage for quite a while yet until things start warming up a bit. At the moment it's definitely winter. The weather forecast calls for a decent dump of snow for Washington on Tuesday, perhaps up to 6 inches so.
There's not going to be much to report for a while yet, so for now I'll aim to add an update every couple of weeks, give or take. Once we start getting closer to the bloom period I'll start updating more frequently. But for now, there's not a lot to see.
