Climate Change Is Making Kyoto’s Cherry Blossoms Bloom The Earliest In 1200 Years!

Cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan reached peak bloom on March 26 this year – the earliest the event has occurred in 1,200 years of records. Why so soon? Climate change, constantly pushing our warming planet towards an inhospitable hellscape. But at least we’ll get to look at pretty flowers while we die.

According to over 1,000 years of records previously compiled by Osaka Prefecture University professor Yasuyuki Aono, Kyoto’s cherry blossoms had consistently flowered around April 10 to 17 for over a millennium. Unfortunately, this window has since moved forward. The Washington Post reports that Japan’s most famous flowers have been trending toward blooming earlier each spring, with scientists attributing the phenomenon to increasing global temperatures. And this year, the peak has shifted all the way into the previous month.

“The Kyoto Cherry Blossom record is incredibly valuable for climate change research because of its length and the strong sensitivity of flowering to springtime temperatures,” Columbia University research scientist Benjamin Cook told the Post, noting that warmer temperatures typically mean cherry blossoms bloom earlier.