An unusually warm winter in Washington has brought out an expected surprise — the city’s world-famous Japanese cherry trees have started blooming. Well, maybe not all of them, but the one outside my back door is busting out.

All around my neighborhood, tulips, daffodils and other springtime flowers have started pushing up through the earth, though I haven’t seen any of those plants blooming yet. I don’t know what will happen if we have a hard freeze that kills the blooms — time will tell.

So far, we’ve seen way too many days in the high 50s and low 60s. And a lot of people think Mother Nature is going to get us back some late-season revenge (I’m reminded of the blizzard and ice storms in March, 1993, that left $2 billion in damage across 20 states). Guess we’ll see.