March has only just begun, but an unseasonably warm winter in 2024 could signal a possible early start to one of the most talked-about events of spring in Toronto: the annual cherry blossom bloom.

The annual High Park Sakura Watch blog returned this week for its first report of the season, reporting that the buds that precede the colourful pink cherry blossoms — known to draw huge crowds to the park each spring — are already progressing faster than usual thanks to Toronto's mild winter.

"Blossom buds have been developing well so far, even if they are showing signs of being slightly ahead of schedule," reads the blog post by local cherry blossom enthusiast, Sakura Steve.

"Undoubtedly, the warmer weather we've experienced over this mild winter has directly contributed to accelerating the normal pace of how the buds would usually develop at this time of year."

High Park's cherry blossom trees currently bear what the blog describes as "well-shaped, oval-shaped buds with a healthy, deep, rich bronze colour. The tips display a more nuanced copper colour, which helps place them right between Stages 1 and 2 of the bud development."

The level of bud development as of February 28 is typical of what is seen around the second week of March under normal conditions, placing the potential for the arrival of the cherry blossoms up to two weeks ahead of the normal late April to early May bloom.

In 2023, the cherry blossoms' peak bloom arrived on April 20, and if conditions persist as they have this year, crowds could flock to High Park and other Sakura hotspots even earlier, potentially during the first half of the month.

Other plant life blooming as early as the first week of February could be another indicator that cherry blossom season may arrive a bit earlier than usual this spring.

However, the mild winter could also prove to be the undoing of this year's bloom. The Sakura Watch blog warns of "the danger of having the buds develop too quickly that a sudden burst of cold weather, say from a Polar Vortex as happened in 2016, the trees become vulnerable, and the buds will produce only a fraction of the flowers they usually do."

Aside from the crowd-clogged High Park, Sakura-watchers can also check out cherry blossoms in other locations around the city, like Trinity Bellwoods, Centennial Park, Gairloch Gardens, and Robarts Library, to name a few.