Finding a blooming cherry to 1. May is becoming increasingly demanding
The climate is also changing in Slovakia.
BRATISLAVA. People who want to fulfill the tradition of the May Day kiss under a blooming cherry this year should be selected in Slovakia over 700 meters above sea level (m nm).
The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute informed about it on its website.
« In recent decades, it is quite difficult to find a blooming cherry on 1 May due to changed climatic conditions. In Slovakia, in the period of 1960-2025 the cherry bloomed on average around 28 April, » experts said.
Depending on the temperature and precipitation, the spring phenological phases are shifted into earlier dates. According to the Fenological Normal 1931 – 1960, the cherry in Slovakia flourished in lower altitudes around 20 April, in higher altitudes (over 600 m above sea level) approximately 10 May.
They added that it bloomed at the latest in 1980, on average 12 May and at the earliest in 2024, on average 13 April.
SHMI claims that since 2001 there was no Hajnáčka phenological station, which is 220 m above sea level, not once recorded the flowering of the cherry during May. Over the years 1960 to 2025, they recorded a shift in the beginning of flowering seven days earlier and a shift in the end of flowering six days earlier.
For example, this year, according to the Institute, the cherry in Hajnáčka ended on April 17.
« Similarly, the earlier trend of the onset of cherry flowering is also recorded at higher altitudes. Even in these areas, there is no rule that the cherry blooms around 1 May, » the experts noted, adding that this year the cherry in Hriňová ended.
Since 2000, according to them, the situation occurred eight times that the cherries have been flowering before 1 May.
