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An unusually intense typhoon season may have caused some of the most famous Japanese cherry blossom trees to flower several months in advance.
Weathernews, a weather site in Japan, said it received more than 350 news this week about the emergence of emerging cherry blossoms, which typically attract tourists around the world in April, when they usually appear.
With a few exceptions, the picturesque pink flowers do not come out in the fall. But Hiroyuki Wada, an arborist from the Japan Flower Association, told NHK public broadcaster that extreme weather conditions had deprived trees of their leaves, producing a hormone that prevents buds from growing. In September, typhoon Jebi, its most violent storm in 25 years, made Japan jump.
"This year's storms have affected vast areas and strong winds may have caused the bloom," he said. "I have never seen anything like it."
Wada said premature blooming would not spoil the cherry blossom festivals and observational nights, known as hanami, which take place every April. The flowers that bloom will not reproduce in the spring, but they represent only a small fraction of the flowers that will appear as expected.
Yet, premature flowering suggests an additional threat to beloved climate change trees, which according to scientists is increase the frequency of "very intense" storms and lead to stronger and wetter typhoons in the Pacific (and hurricanes in the Atlantic).
In Japan, cherry blossoms bloom earlier than 1,200 years of recorded data, which scientists generally attribute to rising temperatures.
For about 1,000 years, until about 1850, flowers usually bloomed around April 17. The expected arrival date is now around April 6th.
A similar effect was observed in Washington, where Japan sent thousands of trees in 1912 as a gift. According to the Washington Post, the usual flowering date changed from April 6 to April 1, April 6.
