Tree in Bloom in December in Western NY

[WestWind]

I took this picture on Sunday because I was amazed to see a tree in bloom here in December. This picture was taken less than 20 miles from the Canadian border.

I'm not sure what's going on here. There are several similar trees on that street (located near downtown Orchard Park), and they all had blooms on them. I know it has been a very warm December here, but I'm still surprised to see blooms on trees. Although there has not been a hard freeze so far this month, we have had frost on several nights. Temperatures were in the 50's when I took the picture.

Except on that street, I have not seen any other trees in bloom. I'm wondering if maybe the cause of the December blooms might instead be the weather we had back in March. In early March, we had a week or so with high temperatures around 80. I remember many trees were in bloom back then. There was a frost/freeze afterwards later in the month. Could that have confused the internal clock on those trees?

I know we have a couple of Buffalo people on this forum. If anyone wants to see these trees, they are located next to The Well restaurant in downtown Orchard Park.

[Vergent]

Winter sakura or fuyuzakura (Prunus subhirtella autumnalis) begins to bloom in the fall and continues blooming sporadically throughout the winter. It is said to be a cross between edohiganzakura, the Tokyo Higan cherry (P. incisa) and mamezakura (P. pendula).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom

[WestWind]

http://en.wikipedia..../Cherry_blossom

I wonder if that's what those are. The flowers do look very similar. The tree from my picture blossoms in a pretty spectacular way in the spring. I don't believe I've seen blossoms on it in the winter before before but I'm not positive.