Seattle's cherry blossoms near peak bloom

Driving the news: The trees in the Quad are on track to reach peak bloom around March 23, UW arborist Sara Shores told Axios, but should be starting to unfurl next week.

• Peak bloom is typically the third week of March, but climate change appears to be shifting the bloom window later, said graduate student researcher Autumn Maust.
• Maust reviewed decades of temperature and bloom data, including reports from UW students, to find that, on average, the trees at UW are now reaching peak blossom about a week later than they did in the 1960s.

The intrigue: Forecasting peak bloom is notoriously tricky, Marlee Theil, the project manager for the cherry tree phenology project at UW, told Axios.

• Cherry blossoms have seven stages of development from dormant to full bloom and require measures of both chilling and warming units to trigger the bloom cycle, Theil said.
• Seattle's increasingly mild winters mean it's taking longer for the trees to meet their cold requirements, she said.

Go deeper: There are thousands of cherry trees lining streets across the city, including 23 cherry trees along the path between Drumheller Fountain to Red Square at UW, and grand displays at Washington Park Arboretum, Seike Japanese Garden, Seward Park and the walkway along Washington Boulevard South.

• To explore street trees, go to the city's treemap here, click on "Explore street trees" in the navigation bar, zoom in, and look for trees in the "prunus" genus, cherry and plum trees which are marked with a blue dot.

• Cherry trees have distinct horizontal-line patterns on their bark called lenticels which distinguish them from plum trees, which look similar and bloom around the same time.

What they're saying: The spectacle should "give us all a little hope," said Shore. "The trees have been around for 90 years and every year they've been putting on a show."

What we're watching: Keep your eye on the university's "Bloom Watch" to track the trees' progress.