Between winter and spring, the Japanese invented a separate season called
hanami,
in homage to the cherry blossom period.
But the fruit trees, renowned for their white and pink petals, thwarted all predictions this year by flowering much faster and earlier than expected.
In the former capital of Kyoto, flowering peaked on March 26, ten days earlier than average.
The previous record was set in… 1409, when the season peaked on March 27th.
The Japanese meteorological agency clearly makes the link with global warming.
"Our studies have shown that the start of the cherry blossom season is closely linked to the average temperature in February and March," explains a meteorologist.
In the Loiret, "we came close to 30 ° C under shelter"
“Our observations of plant life show that spring phenomena (such as the flowering of cherry and plum trees) tend to occur earlier, while autumn phenomena (such as leaf browning) are delayed,” he adds. he.
If the specialists are so sure of themselves, it is that the documentation relating to the festivals of the cherry trees makes it possible to go back up to the IXth century and thus to have a precise idea of the climate which it was at the time.
We know that in Kyoto, flowering took place in 1850 around April 17, and in the meantime, the average temperature has increased by almost 3.5 degrees in the city.
These early blooming phenomena are also observed in France, where mimosa producers have also observed flowering more and more ahead of schedule in recent years.
Cereal plant in the Loiret, south of Paris, Michel Masson noticed that the vegetation, due to milder winters, tends to "come out very early" and "take off".
"A few days ago, we approached 30 ° C under shelter, the equivalent of a month of July," says the farmer.
This heat causes the sap to rise and the buds eventually burst ”.
While the mercury could drop to -3 ° C this week, the farmer fears that the morning frosts will nip the rebirth of these first flowering trees in the bud.
