This post was written by Hatchet reporter Patrick Smith.

The District is welcoming spring sooner with an earlier-than-usual bloom for its iconic cherry blossom trees, ushering in the first day of the annual festival in its centennial year Tuesday.

National Park Service horticulturalists have been scrambling to keep up with unseasonably warm weather to accurately predict the cherry blossoms’ peak bloom period – when 70 percent or more of the flowers have blossomed – shifting the start date from the original projection of March 24 to 31 to March 20 to 23. The average peak bloom date is April 4, according to the park service.

The Cherry Blossom Festival’s communications director Danielle Picante said the date change would not affect this year’s centennial festivities.

“We’re still celebrating in a huge way what people did a hundred years ago; that’s the focus of this year’s festival,” Picante said.

The close to 3,770 blooming trees lining the Tidal Basin and also scattered across the city were originally a gift from Japan in 1912 as a sign of friendship.

This year’s festival, a celebration stretched from the typical two-week schedule to last a full five weeks – until April 27 – to honor the trees’ 100th anniversary in the District, will feature a formal kick-off March 25.

The second annual Blossom Kite Festival will take place March 31, and a fireworks display and festivities are slated for April 7 at the Southwest Waterfront. Floats, balloons and bands will march down Constitution Avenue April 14 in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival Parade.

The park service plans to outline “additional services to enhance the experience of visitors” during the festival at a press conference Thursday, according to The Washington Post.

You can watch the blooming trees without leaving campus on the park service’s cherry blossom webcam.