Mel Madarang

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON (WMAL) — Photos were tweeted yesterday of what seemed like early blooming cherry blossom trees, but National Park Service Spokesperson Mike Litterst said that these were only “autumn flowering cherries.”

Autumn flowering cherries usually appear in November or December during rare warm days. Although these autumn flowering cherries appeared late, Litterst said, “This is in no way shape or form the start of the peak bloom of the Yoshino cherry trees that we are looking forward to some time in March or April.”

In 2017, there was an early bloom of cherry blossoms due to warmer temperatures in February, but many of the flowers were killed due to an Arctic blast. National Park Service recorded that only half of the blossoms survived.

Litterst says unless this year sees consistent warm temperatures, the early blooming flowers are not indicitative of an early peak bloom.

Peak bloom predictions are based on several factors such as longterm forecasts, historic records and temperatures from previous years, Litterst said.

This year’s early bloomers came about a week before the peak bloom prediction, which is set for March 1.