Spring arrived in style on March 26 2021 in Kyoto, Japan, as cherry trees reached the peak of their bloom. This marked the earliest recorded date when most flowers have opened in a series of annual records dating back to 812 AD – over 1,200 years.
The culprit is climate change. Milder, wetter winters and warmer springs coupled with increasingly variable weather have caused blossom dates to advance across growing regions and a variety of fruit trees.
