Set your alarm.
Get your calendars ready.
Because in less than five hours,
the peak bloom forecast prediction
for our beloved tidal basin
cherry blossoms will be revealed.
Yeah, Abby. Lirico getting a
jumpstart for us this morning.
She's joining us live along the
title basin with what we can
expect later on this morning.
Abby, no doubt a lot of
excitement for this prediction.
Absolutely, Larry.
I just could not handle the excitement.
So I had to get down here early even
though just as the sun is coming up,
we are only beginning to see
some of those green buds forming
on these tidal blossom chair,
tidal basin cherry blossoms.
But in just a few hours we will know when
we can expect them to look their best.
And as we know,
it has been an unseasonably warm
winter and that warm weather,
especially here in the late
spring months is one of the
biggest environmental factors that
contributes to these cherry blossoms.
Blossoming.
You've seen plenty of other varieties
of flowering trees perk up along
the district in recent weeks.
Well, so as the National Park Service,
that is another factor that goes into it.
And you also have that indicator
tree we've been talking about,
which pretty reliably runs through
the bloom cycle about two weeks
ahead of the others.
But no part of this is an exact science,
of course,
which is why you might just want
to build in some loose time in
your schedule over the coming month
to come out here and enjoy this.
I know Mike Litteris with the
National Park Service,
who's here this morning going
to be spending a lot of time.
Down here over the next few weeks,
this is how it is home.
It is home for a lot of the district,
and a lot of us are looking at
a possible peak bloom that's a
little earlier than usual because
of this warm weather.
What can you tell us about that?
We know that heat
is what breaks dormancy in flowering
trees and which drives them to to blossom.
So the fact that this has been the,
I think, third warmest winter on record
shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone
if peak bloom occurs earlier than the
average historic date of April 4th.
We don't know how to dress this time of
year right now because it's been crazy.
Neither does that indicator tree
tell me what's going on with that
poor indicator tree.
I mean, just looked at last week,
it was 80 degrees on Thursday and
it was snowing 48 hours later.
And we're seeing this in the trees.
The indicator tree at one
point was showing 4 distinct
phases of the bloom cycle,
depending on what branches
you looked at on that tree.
So the the warm weather that
the dips we're seeing at night
to to really cold temperatures,
the trees are reflecting that
and we're talking about.
To how people are really keeping
an eye on those different phases.
Social media has really helped that take off.
You know, it's just you know,
20 years or so ago we didn't even
track the the phases and now it's a
sort of a cottage industry in DC so
trees are at phase one right now,
but they are on the cusp.
One more warm day probably
bump us into phase two,
which is the florets finally starting to
emerge and being visible on the trees,
well, we know you will be on top of it,
so will we and if you want to go ahead
and get your calendars out folks.
Just go ahead and book off the entire
Cherry Blossom Festival which is March
20th through April 16th this year,
casting a pretty wide net.
So hopefully we'll be able to catch
a few days of peak bloom in there.
Mike, thank you so much again.
The announcement is happening at
11:00 o'clock this morning and you
know we'll bring it to you as soon
as we learn more back to you guys.
Alright, Abby, thank you.
You know, we made our predictions about
when we think peak bloom will in fact be.
I said March 23rd at that's my prediction.
Oh, that's your prediction? Yeah.
What's mine? 22nd. The 22nd.
OK, because you wanted to.
I just know because that's my
grandmother's birthday. OK.
That's why we can share it.
Well, OK, OK alright.
Because we're A-Team. Alright.
Good stuff, Abby.
Thank you friend.
We appreciate you.
All right, as Abby said,
we will stream the announcement live
on our streaming platform W USA 9 Plus.
Again it's set for 11:00 o'clock
this morning.
We'll also send out a push.
Alert to your phones as long as you
have our free W USA 9 mobile app
downloaded to your mobile device.
We also have a full cherry blossom
guide on our website right now,
and you can find all the events
happening for the festival this year,
as well as good places to view the trees.
Again,
that's on our website wusa9.com.