Emily Kwong

Oh, okay.

Compared to something that blooms later in the spring, which may have a larger bucket of warmth.

Exactly.

You know, this kind of reminds me of baking.

You know how you have to chill dough in order to bake it?

The trees have to chill a little bit before they'll bloom in the heat.

Okay, so Elizabeth is saying to bloom, there needs to be a combination of triggers.

Trees need the winter cold, they need the spring warmth, and they need longer days in order to begin the blooming process.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, we have had a really strange winter in D.C.

There's been this pendulum swing between multiple snowstorms and then warm 70, 80 degree days.

So did any of the folks who work with the trees describe how this weather is affecting the cherry blossoms?

What is Mike's office's track record of accuracy for predicting peak bloom?

Because in making the predictions, they're also gathering what the trees are actually doing every year.

I didn't realize how much insight cherry blossoms provided in this way.

I remember in an earlier NatureQuest episode, we talked about this, this field

devoted to the timing of periodic natural events, flowers blooming, birds migrating, animals going into hibernation.

It tells us something.

Two to four weeks doesn't sound like a lot, but in the life of the environment, that is a big difference.

That is a good way to get community scientists involved.