Photo/Illutration A cherry blossom that opened on March 19 on a Somei-Yoshino tree under watch at Osaka Castle Park’s Nishinomaru Garden in Osaka’s Chuo Ward (Nobuhiro Shirai)

OSAKA—Osaka’s cherry blossom season officially started on March 19, tying the earliest record for the flowers set in 2021, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The agency’s Osaka Regional Headquarters earlier that day confirmed that blossoms had opened on a Somei-Yoshino cherry tree at Osaka Castle Park that has been used to gauge the start of the sakura season. More than five flowers had bloomed, the minimum requirement.

The blossoms are expected to reach their peak in about a week or 10 days.

This year’s blossoms in Osaka Prefecture arrived eight days earlier than in an average year and four days earlier than last year.

The Osaka Regional Headquarters said the wide temperature fluctuations so far this year led to the early flowers.

January and February had many chilly days, but the mercury so far in March has been higher than in an average year.

The agency began keeping records on cherry blossom sightings in 1953. 

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