Climate change complicating peak bloom predictions, NPS says [Video]

WASHINGTON — A still life shot, that’s also a moving target. Hobby photographer Jay Vizcarra is on the hunt for peak bloom on the Tidal Basin – a date that’s never been easy to pin down.

“I think it actually adds an element of kind of a suspense to it,” he said after snapping shots of some early blooms.

This year with a record breaking mild winter in D.C., seeing the future for peak bloom has been nothing like the past say the National Park Service.

“In the last few days that we’ve been meeting to come up with a date we have been wildly across the board over a two week pattern,” said NPS Arborist Matthew Morrison.

“We’ve never experienced that kind of fluctuation,” he said.

Morrison says predicting peak bloom is getting harder every year because of climate change.

“With the …