(Photo by Katie Harbath)

With spring sprung about three weeks early, it’s little surprise that the cherry blossoms will be making an early appearance this year—potentially breaking an all-time record. The National Park Service’s prediction: we’ll see the fragile pink blooms at their peak between March 14 and March 19.

March 15 is the earliest peak bloom on record, which occurred in 1990 (the latest is April 18, 1958). Last year, they peaked—defined as 70 percent of flowers in bloom—on March 25, as cooler temperatures kept pushing it back.

Depending on weather conditions, peak bloom can last from 4-10 days. That means that the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs between March 20 and April 16, could conceivably miss its namesake.

Around 1.5 million people come to D.C. to see the blossoms annually, and it wouldn’t be the first time that an early bloom threatened to predate the festival. Nonetheless, the welcome area and a performance stage will open on March 15.

The Capital Weather Gang also tracks the trees in their six-stage bloom process, and they predict the peak will come between March 15 and March 19.

Scientists and observers who track nature’s cyclical phenomena, a field known as phenology, put the District at 22 days ahead of schedule for spring. Some have been taking pictures of blooming cherry trees already, but they are a different varietal than the famed Yoshino trees.