Steve Burns
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON – (WMAL) The unseasonably warm winter we’ve had has its pros and cons.

One big advantage may be an early start to cherry blossom season. The mild temperatures and lack of snow all point to an earlier-than-average bloom for DC’s famous trees along the Tidal Basin.

“I think the average peak bloom date is about April 4th,” National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst told WMAL. “We’re probably looking at sometime before that.”

The earliest peak bloom on record, according to NPS records dating back to 1921, was March 15, in 1990. While Litterst say the earliest signs of a bloom have yet to show, it may not be far off.

“Still a little too far out to make any sort of educated, accurate guess,” he said. “But save for a real deep freeze or some snow on the horizon, I’d say we’re probably looking at earlier than the average.”

However, plants blooming earlier also means more pollen entering the air and a busier office for D.C. allergist Dr. Henry Fishman.

“There’s been literally pollen in February!” Fishman told WMAL. “Generally warm winter correlates with warm spring, high pollen counts, and a little bit of misery for allergy sufferers.”

He said complaints of stuffy noses and itchy eyes have been coming in earlier than usual to his office. The lack of snow, however, may make the allergy season a little tamer than it would have been otherwise.

“The dry winter tends to cause less pollen in the springtime,” Fishman said. “The more wintertime snow, the snow melts, you get more water and more pollen in the trees.”

Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay)