AI Predicts First Cherry Blossom of 2020 To Spring Up in Tokyo

27.January.2020 | SPOT

Weather app and website Otenki JAPAN’s free cherry blossom forecast ‘AI Sakura Yoso‘ is a service which predicts the blooming stages of cherry blossoms across the country by AI. The service has just released its predictions for the start and full bloom periods of 1006 cherry blossom-viewing locations. Otenki JAPAN has been using AI predictions since 2018 and has significantly improved its accuracy by 9 percent since last year.

According to the AI’s predictions, many places from Kyushu to Tokai and in the Hokuriku region will see cherry blossoms blooming later in the season than the average year whereas many areas of the Kanto-Koshin and Tohoku regions will see sakura blooming earlier than average. Current predictions for blooming start dates include March 19 for Tokyo (7 days earlier than average), March 27 in Nagoya (1 day later than average), March 30 in Osaka (2 days later than average), and March 26 for Kyoto (2 days earlier than average). The earliest cherry blossoms are predicted to be in Tokyo and the latest are predicted to be in Aomori on April 23. 

 

AI Sakura Yoso creates predictions by processing information on the blooming process of cherry blossoms, the weather, climate and much more. The app provides predictions for six stages for the blooming of cherry blossoms from the day they start blooming to the end. The AI uses data on the blooming conditions of approximately 980,000 cherry blossoms at 1,000 locations across the country over the past 10 years combined with weather information collected by Japan’s Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) since 1998. The information is used to study each stage of the cherry blossom starting from its dormant stage and the end of its dormancy to the formation of the bud until the very end of the life cycle. Temperature and weather patterns are studied by the AI to produce its own sakura season prediction which is updated every day.

 

If you’re keen to get your cherry blossom fill this spring, AI Sakura Yoso will help you plan your trip in advance. 

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