Washington D.C.’s cherry trees in bloom.
Zayrha Rodriguez/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Zayrha Rodriguez/NPR
Do you ever wish you could predict the future?
The National Park Service in Washington D.C. does it every year when they forecast when the Capitol’s cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom. People travel from all over the world to enjoy the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival and to glimpse these fragile flowers before they are gone.
On this month’s Nature Quest, we learn the ins and outs of cherry tree blossoms, how scientists make that big prediction every year — and why all this focus on blooms can help scientists better understand climate change.
This episode is part of Nature Quest, our monthly segment from listeners noticing a change in the world around them. To participate, send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org with your name, location and your question about a change you’re seeing in nature!
Want to learn more about nature’s calendar? Check out our first Nature Quest episode on whether flowers are blooming early.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Berly McCoy, Angela Zhang, and Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez. Sam Paulson composed and produced our Nature Quest theme music.