Watch live: When will DC’s cherry blossoms hit peak bloom? NPS revealing 2026 dates

When D.C.’s cherry trees hit peak bloom every year, millions of visitors are tickled pink by the sight.

But the flowers are fickle, blooming sooner if the weather is warm and later in cool temperatures. So, when will peak bloom fall this year?

The National Park Service (NPS) is set to announce its prediction on Thursday. Watch in the video player above.

NPS consults the long-range forecast, historical records and what’s known as the indicator tree – a tree that reliably blooms before many others – to predict peak bloom.

Hours before the big announcement, we asked the National Park Service’s Mike Litterst what he’s seeing now.

“What are the trees telling us right now?” Litterst told News4. “Indicator tree, which is our sort of early guide for where we’re going to be, nothing happening on it. No buds at all. So that tells us, not surprisingly, after that cold winter, probably going to have a later peak bloom than we had last year.”

Storm Team4 predicts peak bloom will fall between March 30 and April 5. Here’s more on why peak bloom might be on the later side this year.

Peak bloom is when 70% of the Yoshino cherry trees along the Tidal Basin are flowering. It typically lasts several days and is the best time to visit D.C.’s famed cherry trees.

Predicting peak bloom helps hordes of tourists and locals plan their trips to the Tidal Basin for a view of a petal-filled panorama.

Longtime visitors may notice some changes this year. The National Cherry Blossom Festival’s center of activities along the Tidal Basin, now known as Bloom Fest, will now be located at the south lawn of the Jefferson Memorial. Visitors will find live music, a beer garden, merchandise sales and National Park Service ranger activities

The landscape will be a little different, too. After two years of rehab, NPS said in December that phase one of its seawall reconstruction project is complete. The seawall needed to be rehabilitated to protect the trees from flooding, but required the removal of 300 trees.

Litterst said at the time that NPS was preparing to plant 426 new trees.

But if you’re thinking of stopping by those new blooms in 2026 — you have a while to wait. While the wall inside the Tidal Basin is complete, the walkways around it won’t reopen until after the upcoming cherry blossom season.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival runs from March 20 to April 12 and will include events such as the Blossom Kite Festival, the parade and Petalpalooza. Restaurants around the city are set to offer food and drink specials.

The cherry trees at the Tidal Basin, originally gifted to the U.S. by Japan in 1912, are the main attraction, but all eight wards of the city have cherry trees that bloom in the spring.