Japan is experiencing one of the earliest cherry blossom blooms in history, and scientists blame global warming

• Cherry blossoms bloomed ahead of schedule in Japan this year.
• Experts say that climate change is playing a role in the progressively earlier blooms.
• A researcher says the March 26 bloom in Kyoto was the earliest in more than 1,200 years.

Cherry blossom trees are blooming ahead of schedule in Japan this year, and experts say it's a symptom of climate change.

The sakura trees in Kyoto reached peak bloom on March 26 this year, the earliest since the Japan Meteorological Agency first started collecting data in 1953, according to the Associated Press. And there's evidence that it could be the earliest of all time.

Yasuyuki Aono, a researcher at Osaka Prefecture University, looked through records going back to 812 AD and found the earliest peak bloom day to be a day later, on March 27, in the years 1612, 1409, and 1236, according to the CNN and the AP. But Aono didn't have data for some years.

Tokyo also experienced an earlier-than-usual full bloom on March 22, the second-earliest date on record.

Across the Pacific in the United States, the cherry blossom trees in Washington, DC were ahead of schedule as well.

According to The Guardian, the DC cherry blossoms reached peak bloom four days ahead of the 30-year-average date of April 1. The cherry blossoms on the National Mall now reach peak bloom six days sooner than they did 100 years ago, according to The Guardian.

"We can say it's most likely because of the impact of the global warming," Shunji Anbe, an official at the observations division at the Japan Meteorological Agency, told the AP about the early cherry blooms in Japan.

Cherry blossoms are among the first plants to bloom in the spring, and their blossoms last typically for just two weeks before falling.

The progressively earlier blooms are impacted by two factors - urbanization and climate change, Amos Tai, a professor of earth science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNN.

As cities get bigger, they tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas, leading to earlier blooms for trees in cities. But Tai says the bigger impact on the earlier blooms is climate change, which involves rising temperatures around the world.

In Kyoto, for example, the average temperature for March has climbed to 51 degrees Fahrenheit in 2020 from 47.5 in 1953.

The earlier blooms will have serious consequences on the intricate ecosystem that cherry blossom trees are part of, Tai told CNN.

For example, insects whose life cycles are timed to the bloom could finish their growth once the trees are already done blooming, and thus miss out on the nutrients.

"Ecosystems are not accustomed to these kinds of large fluctuations, it causes them a lot of stress," said Tai. "Productivity may be reduced, and ecosystems may even collapse in the future."