hankyoreh

This year’s warm winter has local governments worried, as flowers are blossoming earlier than planned flower festivals.

Several species of flowers came into bloom in mid-February, forcing the local governments of Gwangyang and Gurye in South Korea’s southern region to hold their flower festivals ahead of schedule.

The county of Gurye plans to start a festival for Cornelian cherry blossoms on March 15, about two weeks ahead of its original schedule, as the flowers are already in bloom. Hyeong Sang-woo, an official at the Gurye county office, said the latest date was set after finding a copse of cornelian cherry trees not yet in bloom; the festival will be centered on those trees.

Gwangyang County plans to hold a maehwa (ume) blossom festival on March 17-25, even though the flowers are already emerging. The county had also planned to change the date of this festival, but its efforts failed due to residents’ opposition.

"Helped by word of mouth that the flowers are already in bloom, about 50,000 tourists have already visited on the weekends or on holidays," said Gwangyang County official Seo Bok-shim, adding that the festival will not be affected by the earlier-than-expected blossoms due to the fact that the flowers usually stay open for 20-25 days.

The southern port city of Yeosu, which is hoping to hold the 2012 World Expo, plans to hold a flower festival in April when a delegation of the World Expo organizing committee visits the city for an on-site inspection. However, the plan seems to be in disarray due to early blossoms there.

The national weather agency said on March 2 that this winter was recorded as the warmest winter in the 104 years since modern meteorological measurement began. During this winter season so far, the average temperature was 2.46 degrees Celsius, compared with the average of 0.43 degrees Celsius between 1971 and 2000. In February, the average temperature was 4.09 degrees Celsius, compared with an annual average of 0.75 Celsius degrees. The Han River did not freeze this winter, the first time it failed to do so in 15 years.

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