Image credits: Yusheng Deng. The first blossoms of the season popped open last week in Tokyo. At the Yasukuni Shrine, a lone Somei Yoshino tree revealed just enough blooms—five, to be exact—for the Japan Meteorological Agency to declare the 2025 cherry blossom (also called sakura ) season officially underway. While the blossoms are as beautiful as ever, something’s wrong. Lately, their timing has gone rogue. The trees are blooming faster and faster. Yes, it’s yet another proof that climate change is taking its toll on the planet. Cherry data doesn’t lie Kyoto’s cherry blossoms have been tracked for more than 1,200 years . That’s over a millennium of handwritten notes, royal diaries, and temple records describing when these trees flowered . This data has been digitzed and it’s very useful to track proxies about weather and climate . There were ups and downs in the blooming, but in the long term, the trend has remained constant century after century; until the 20th century, that is. As climate change started kicking in, the cherry trees (called sakura in Japan) started blooming increasingly earlier. In 2023, Kyoto’s trees reached peak bloom on March 25—the earliest date in twelve centuries. It’s not that this is one of the most important effects of climate change. However, this is one of the most visible signs of impact you can get. The timing of a cherry blossom’s bloom is exquisitely sensitive to temperature. Even a few degrees of warming can shift it by days—or weeks. Trees need a prolonged chill period in winter before they can blossom. Without it, they may bloom erratically . But what we’re seeing now isn’t an erratic behavior; it’s a clear trend towards trees blooming earlier. And it’s not just cherry trees . Apple orchards, peach groves, even forests of […]