Korea's cherry blossoms (beotkkot) open from south to north over about three weeks. In a normal year the first trees flower in Seogwipo and Jeju City around 24–25 March, in Busan around 28 March, in Jinhae (Changwon) and Gyeongju around 29 March, in Jeonju and Gangneung in early April, and in Seoul around 8 April. The table lists the places visitors ask about most, from south to north, with the normal first-bloom date of the nearest observation city, what happened in 2026 and the 2026 festival dates.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) counts a city's first bloom when at least three flowers are fully open on one branch of its standard tree, and full bloom when 80% of that tree's flowers are open. On Seoul's KMA tree, full bloom has followed first bloom by two to five days in every year since 2015; the private forecaster Weather i puts the best viewing about a week after first bloom.
2026 was an unusually compressed season. Cold spells in February and early March held Jeju back to 28 March, three days later than normal, so the Jeonnong-ro festival, which ended on 29 March, had only about 30% of its blossoms open. Then a late March that was the third-warmest on record brought Seoul's KMA tree into flower on 29 March, ten days early, the fifth-earliest since records began in 1922 and only a day after Jeju. Yeouido's trees also opened on 29 March, eight days early, and its festival ran on 3–7 April. In 2025 Seoul's tree flowered on 4 April and Busan's on 28 March, its normal date.
Forecasts for 2027 are expected in the second half of February 2027: Weather i posted its cherry forecasts on 23 February 2024, 21 February 2025 and 26 February 2026. KMA does not forecast; it posts each city's first bloom on its spring-flower observation page from early March. Festival dates are usually fixed from the February forecasts, so a festival can miss the bloom, as Jeju's did in 2026; book refundable rooms and check again in mid-March.
