Tokyo cherry blossoms in full bloom, matching 2nd earliest record

Cherry blossoms were in full bloom on Wednesday in central Tokyo, matching 2013, 2020 and 2021 to become the second-earliest day in the year for the seasonal phenomena to occur since records began, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.More than 80 percent of the flowers on a "Somei Yoshino" tree at Yasukuni Shrine, used by the agency as a yardstick to measure the annual event, were in bloom, fulfilling the full-bloom criteria nine days earlier than average and five days earlier than in 2022.The agency believes the trees' flowering in the capital was accelerated by temperatures having risen …READ FULL ARTICLE