Washington’s cherry blossoms may bloom earlier this year as temperature increases in the district, an expert from National Park Service said on Thursday. He said cherry trees may come to a full blossom in late March.

Rob DeFeo, chief horticulturist, said that cherry blooms might bloom best starting March 29 until April 3. However, the flowers can also be seen before and after the given dates.

The full bloom of cherry trees is expected to occur halfway of the well-celebrated National Cherry Blossom Festival. The festival will be held from March 26 to April 10.

The Park Service said cherry blossoms are usually seen at its finest every year on April 4. It is considered as the average peak blossom date. Hence, the first flower blossoms of these trees may occur almost a week earlier this year.

De Feo said Yoshino cherry trees are one of the oldest most consistent things in the country’s capital. Out of the last 19 years, he has already predicted the tree’s peak bloom dates correctly 16 times.

Cherry trees came to Washington, DC as a gift from Japan to celebrate the continued relationship between both nations.

Last month, the National Christmas Tree situated near the White House was blown down by the high winds. Yet, DeFeo said the trees are still healthy. There are still 100 trees growing out of the original 3,000 trees presented from Tokyo in 1912. Meanwhile, the other 2,900 trees have been changed over time.

This year, one of the festival events will be charging admission for the first time. The Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival has emerged to be the biggest Japanese festival in United States. Last year, it attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and took place over the event’s final weekend.

However, most of the events during the two-week festival are still free, according to Diana Mayhem, president of the Cherry Blossom Festival.