ABC News held a story this week that covered the early blooms of cherry trees in Washington, D.C., attributed early blooms to climate change. This is wrong. [emphasis, links added]
Although cherry blossoms have arrived earlier in recent years, The reason is that the increase in DC and developed populations leads to local thermal bias in the urban heat island (UHI) effect, resulting in less seasonal freezing and higher average night temperatures in the region. The same is true in Tokyo.
Reporter in the ABC News Project “Sakura blooms and cherry blossoms are in full bloom due to climate change,” Washington's iconic cherry blossoms are approaching the peaks and occurring due to enhanced climate change by humans. ”
This change, while not disastrous, is destroying travel to see blooms, leading travelers to see blooms every year in DC to have to plan early holidays.
Similar stories have also been running over the past decade or so, including the 2023 Washington Post and the BBC describing similar situations in Tokyo in 2024.
Cherry blossoms may indeed have peaked in bloom in recent years than they have been a few days ago in the past few decades, but if so, population growth and associated UHI effects should be attributed to increased global average temperatures.
The UHI effect is a well-recognized phenomenon in which as a location experiences population growth and densification, with the development associated with artificial heat sources such as concrete, asphalt, buildings, engines, furnaces, furnaces, boilers, boilers and air conditioners.
These heat sources absorb sunlight and heat during the day only release slowly at night, which tends to increase the average temperature at night, thus biasing towards the overall average temperature at any location affected.
About Tokyo Climate RealismEven though Tokyo's just average annual temperature has dropped since 1997, the effects of the UHI effect have been artificially increasing the average temperature by 5.4°F, much higher than the average rise across the island nation.
This bias can lead to earlier spring conditions with higher night lows, resulting in early flowering.
Compared with trees and flowering plants in nearby rural areas, geophysical research letters and studies on environmental pollution published in peer-reviewed journals suggest that the UHI effect may extend the bloom date by several days.
Another peer-reviewed study was published in the Journal climate The study specifically discusses UHI signatures in Washington, D.C., and the following figure shows a map of UHI signatures in the morning, afternoon and evening.
The picture above shows that UHI ruled the core of downtown, with cherry trees in Washington, D.C. located in the tidal basin. So it’s no surprise that the cherry trees react and bloom as UHI signatures grow over time.
The increase in measured temperature rises in Washington, D.C. is larger than the national average, mainly due to population growth and the UHI effect over the past century.
Since 1950, the population of Washington, D.C. has grown by more than 331%, which is related to massive development.
The National Park Service has been tracking the peak of cherry blossoms since the early 1920s, and its data shows on the Environmental Protection Agency's website, indicating that the annual peak Bloom has changed earlier as the population grows. (See the image below.)
ABC News Ignore studies and data that strongly suggest UHI [effect] Due to the late season frost and high average night temperatures, it is entirely responsible for the spring cherry blossom blooming.
But, of course, this is consistent with the narrative that mainstream media drives on climate change, which can lead to bad things.
The facts may not support this, but the facts don't inspire a fascinating news story, and that's what ABC and other media seem to really care about – attracting public interest, attention, clicks and advertising sales, rather than reporting the truth.
Read more in Climate Realism
