Washington month by month, at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
Some cities have a best moment that lasts a whole season. Here it lasts a few days, and nobody knows which days until a few weeks before: the bloom of the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin is forecast each year the way a harvest is forecast, and half the tourist calendar depends on that forecast.
01 A date that changes every year
Peak bloom is the moment when about seventy per cent of the trees are open, and on average it falls on 4 April. But the average is misleading: depending on the winter, it can come forward to the last week of March or slip well into April.
And it does not last. From the first showing until wind and rain take the petals, less than two weeks pass, and the peak itself is counted in days. It is the shortest and most contested window of the year in this city.
The practical consequence is awkward: you have to book months ahead for a date nobody can guarantee. Whoever travels only for the blossom is taking a bet; whoever travels for the city and catches it wins a prize.
Key moments at a glance
Highs of 20 degrees and the cherry window, short and crowded.
Highs of 24.7 degrees and the city already free of April's queues.
Average highs of 32 degrees, 110 millimetres of rain and constant mugginess.
20.8 degrees, dry air and autumn colour in the parks.
02 Where those trees came from
They are not native and they were not planted by chance. In 1912 the city of Tokyo gave 3,020 cherry trees, and on 27 March that year the first two were planted on the northern shore of the basin. Everything else grew from there.
There was an earlier attempt that went wrong. In 1910 two thousand trees had arrived diseased and infested, and they had to be destroyed before planting. The 1912 shipment was the second attempt and it took.
That is why the city marks the bloom with its own name and programme every spring. It is not only a botanical event: it is the anniversary of a gift that took two attempts to work.
03 Summer is the real problem
The city sits on a plain beside a river and its summer is humid and heavy. July records average highs of 32 degrees and 110 millimetres of rain; August follows with 31. Nights do not drop below 21 or 22.
Add to that the kind of visit this city demands: long distances outdoors, shadeless open spaces and museums you reach on foot. In July and August that programme becomes exhausting by mid-morning.
If summer is your only window, the fix is scheduling: museums at midday, streets early and late. And expect afternoon thunderstorms, which here are frequent and brief.
04 October, the month almost nobody books
If you could choose without thinking about the cherry trees, the answer would be October. Average highs hover around 20.8 degrees, humidity has dropped, rain falls to 93 millimetres and the city's parks fill with colour.
It is also a very wooded city, with river parks that cut through whole neighbourhoods, so autumn is not confined to a couple of avenues: you see it from almost any residential street.
And winter, though cold, has its useful version. January barely reaches 7 degrees by day and drops below zero at night, but it is when the museums are empty and the city can be walked without queues.
It is the only capital where the year's best week is announced with a weather forecast and a margin of error.
05 How to choose
If you are coming for the blossom, aim for the last week of March and the first of April, book far ahead and accept that the exact date will not be known until a few weeks before. It is the busiest period of the year.
If you are coming for the city, go in May or October: temperatures in the low twenties, low humidity and everything open. Avoid July and August if you can, and if you cannot, organise the day around the museums' air conditioning.
