2018 Cherry Blossom Forecast

Weather News has released its first of its periodic estimates about when different parts of Japan can expect the cherry blossoms to arrive this spring.

The weather site says that it bases its calculations on the submissions of over 2 million submissions from over 180,000 users over the past 14 years and confidently urges viewers to make their travel plans based upon their predictions.

This year, the site expects some of the first cherry trees to start blooming to be in Tokyo around March 22 (followed a couple of days later by Yokohama).

In the west, while southerly Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku will be seeing pink around the same time as Tokyo, the buds are expected to open here in Hiroshima around March 26. The flower front then hits neighboring Yamaguchi prefecture, home to Kintai Bridge which is one of the area’s most popular hanami cherry blossom-viewing spots, the following day. Kyoto’s cherry trees will bursting forth around the end of March/early April, around which time we should be able to enjoy the blossoms at Hiroshima’s higher elevations and at places like Ohnan in Shimane, as well as late bloomers at the Hiroshima Mint in Itsukaichi.

Confusingly, another site Zekkei Japan doesn’t have the blossoms opening in Hiroshima on March 22 and reaching full bloom around April 1.

We’ll be keeping an eye on how future announcements from Weather News and other weather services and update this post accordingly.