It’s official: Cherry blossom season in Washington, D.C., has reached peak bloom.
“PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOOOOOOOOOOM!” the National Park Service announced in a jubilant post on X Friday. “It took one more sunrise and warming temperatures, but we’re finally here.”
The monthlong National Cherry Blossom Festival draws more than 1.5 million visitors to Washington, D.C., each year to see the spring spectacle of more than 3,000 pale pink and white cherry blossom trees that were given to the city by Japan as a gift in 1912.
The park service defines peak bloom as the period when 70% of the Yoshino cherry blossoms are open, typically in late March or early April.
And the agency — which oversees the parks in and around the Tidal Basin, where most of the trees are concentrated — had been updating eager cherry blossom fans on social media as it approached the peak threshold.
Kerry Santeliz, 15, poses in her quinceañera dress under the shade of cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin, in Washington, D.C., Thursday. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP)
Cherry blossoms begin to bloom around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., on March 26. (Rahmat Gul/AP)
The Jefferson Memorial is seen through cherry blossom trees on March 26. (Rahmat Gul/AP)
A woman poses for a photo with a cherry blossom near the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., on March 26. (Rahmat Gul/AP)
Blooming cherry blossoms are reflected by the sunrise in Washington, D.C., March 27. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
A woman wears a cherry blossom head band while walking under the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin, on March 27. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP)
Blooming cherry blossoms are seen on Capitol Hill March 27. (Kent Nishimura/Reuters)
People enjoy the spring weather amid blooming cherry blossoms in the Lower Senate Park on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 27. (Kent Nishimura/Reuters)
People are framed by blooming cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin on March 27. (Matt McClain/Washington Post via Getty Images)
If you can’t make it to D.C. to see the cherry blossoms, don’t fret: Dozens of other cities around the county — including New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, St. Louis and San Francisco — are home to spectacular displays of cherry blossoms in bloom.
