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See pictures of cherry blossom trees near peak bloom in Washington, D.C.

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See pictures of cherry blossom trees near peak bloom in Washington, D.C.


Cherry blossom season has arrived in Washington, D.C., where pink and white flowers dot thousands of trees around the city as this year’s peak bloom approaches. To celebrate the iconic springtime sight, locals and tourists alike can participate in the National Cherry Blossom Festival, an annual event series that runs for four weeks and features a mix of art, music, food and more.

Originally a gift from Japan to the United States, the capital’s cherry blossoms appear along the Tidal Basin and in parks near several of the capital’s monuments and memorials. 

Cherry blossoms are seen in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 21, 2025.

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images


Images show buds unfurling on cherry trees around the Tidal Basin, where flowering branches create some dazzling views in the foreground of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. This picture was taken Friday, March 21, when peak bloom had not even arrived yet:

Cherry Blossoms

The cherry trees begin to bloom, Friday, March 21, 2025 in Washington. The National Park Service predicts peak bloom this year between March 28–31.

Jose Luis Magana/AP


The National Park Service determines the cherry blossoms’ “peak bloom” date by predicting when 70% of the blossoms on the Yoshino cherry trees, which are the most common type of cherry tree planted along the Tidal Basin, will be open. 

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Typically, peak bloom occurs between the last week of March and the first week of April, according to the park service, which notes that forecasting the peak is impossible to do more than 10 days ahead of time. The average peak bloom date falls on April 3, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which similarly advises that the exact timing varies from year to year because warmer temperatures can encourage an earlier bloom. 

Cherry Blossoms

Visitors walk in Tidal Basin as cherry trees begin to bloom, Friday, March 21, 2025 in Washington.

Jose Luis Magana/AP


Peak bloom is expected to happen sooner than the average date in 2025, with the park service estimating it will occur at some point between this Friday, March 28, and next Monday, March 31. The Yoshino trees usually bloom over the course of multiple days.

The park service’s National Mall branch announced Sunday that D.C.’s cherry trees had reached “stage 5 – Puffy white,” which is the final stage before peak bloom.

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People visit Lafayette Square across from the White House as cherry blossoms bloom on March 22, 2025.

DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images


“The blossoms are starting to show, now we’re just waiting on them to open,” the agency wrote in a social media post. “Peak Bloom is next!”

There are a multitude of opportunities for people to enjoy the cherry blossoms in D.C. before they disappear for the year. The city’s Cherry Blossom Festival offers an extensive lineup of events, which are mostly free and pay homage to the city’s culture and history. 

Cherry Blossoms

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is seen as cherry trees begin to bloom, Friday, March 21, 2025 in Washington.

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Jose Luis Magana/AP


Held to commemorate the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo’s then-mayor Yukio Ozaki to Washington, D.C., the festival draws more than 1.5 million to a range of programs, according to its website. The events include a kite festival and the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade.

Jeff Reinbold, the superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, said in a statement that instilling community-wide appreciation for the cherry trees is a big part of the festival’s mission.

“The National Park Service takes great pride in the work we do to care for the stars of this festival – the 3,700 cherry trees, which are both natural and cultural treasures of our city and our nation,” Reinbold said. “We encourage all visitors to the Festival to be good stewards of the trees and join us as “cherry blossom protectors” to help us preserve them for future generations and Festivals.”

Cherry Blossoms

Visitors walk in the Tidal Basin as cherry trees begin to bloom, Friday, March 21, 2025 in Washington.

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Jose Luis Magana/AP




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Washington, D.C

Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week

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Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week


4 things to know about the weather:

  1. Chances of rain in the morning
  2. Gusty Sunday
  3. Chilly Monday
  4. Temps will rise again through the work week

Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.

After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.

The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.

Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.

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However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.

QuickCast

SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s

MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s

Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.



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‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington

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‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington


The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.

In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.

“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”

Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.

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Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.

“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.

“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”

Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”

A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.

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Rachel Reeves posted this image on Instagram from Washington DC on Thursday with the message: ‘Friends that run together – work together.’ Photograph: Rachel Reeves/Instagram

Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.

Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.

But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.

“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”

At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.

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The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.

Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.

For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.

“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.

“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”

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For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.

In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.

Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.

“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”





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Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos

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Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos


Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.

Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.

Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.

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You can learn more and book your table here.



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