Posted on 06/08/2021 11:58:37 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
The 17-year “Brood X” cicadas are hatching in such high numbers that they’re being picked up by weather radar in Virginia.
“THIS is not rain, not ground clutter,” NBC meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts tweeted on Monday. “So likely CICADAS being picked up by the radar beam.”
Pallozzi said the NWS has a weather radar located in Sterling, Virginia, in the same region as the radar map that Ricketts posted, and explained that the beams the radar devices send out rise the further they travel from the machine.
So the beams are picking up the newly emerged cicadas on the ground near the Sterling radar, but fewer and fewer cicadas are identified as the beam’s height increases away from the ground, which is why the blip on the map is so close to the radar itself, Pallozzi said.
The NWS’ Baltimore-Washington account tweeted on Saturday that local radar was reporting “a lot of fuzziness” that it attributed to cicadas.
While the cicadas are populous enough for weather radar to notice them, Pallozzi said it’s easy for any meteorologist to discern the difference between weather events and cicadas due to the “Hydrometeor Classification Algorithm.”
Pallozzi said the NWS can use the algorithm to determine the likelihood that a radar beam is picking up hail, rain, snow, something biological, or more.
And cicadas can be really noisy too:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1401920157413482500
After 17 years underground, billions of red-eyed cicadas are beginning to crawl their way to the surface in portions of the United States. The periodical insects, known as Brood X or Brood 10, have begun emerging from the earth in 15 eastern states and Washington, D.C., from Georgia to New York and west to Indiana and Illinois.
“There will be birth. There will be death. There will be romance in the treetops. There will be wicked sex. There will be predators. It’s going to be better than an episode of Game of Thrones…”
Are these things really insects, or were the Chinese inspired by “The Clone Wars”?
Not to worry, your time is coming...
Not everything. You have FReepmail...
Are these things really insects, or were the Chinese inspired by “The Clone Wars”?
Actually they are space aliens who come out every 17 years
and try to sonic signal the mother ship.
Hint, all insects came here from another planet.
Don’t trust any of them.
In a survival situation, I guess all bets are off, though. Salamander has survival skills...and knives. I leave the others to fill in the gaps. Just hope she can get by on roots and berries until help arrives.
You’re a trip.
5.56mm
I haven’t heard a peep out of them here in Georgia.
Spent the weekend near Mordor and it was deafening, precluding outside gatherings or even conversation. Much worse than 17 or 34 years ago. I blame Byedumb. Prove me wrong.
I would never eat a cicada; however, the crows were feasting on the cicada road kill in front of my house this morning.
Good. Come on down to B'more and take as many as you like. I have the a/c on, all windows and doors closed, and they are like a neighbor running a vacuum in noise. They are also disgusting in trying to land on you as you walk outdoors. Yesterday, I was sitting in my car in a parking lot, watching a lady scream and dance as one apparently landed on her. She glanced up and we shared a significant look: Yeah, me, too.
Brood X doesn’t extend that far into GA.
I’ve seen birds so full of cicadas that they can’t get airborne.
There are more of them on the mother ship?
One of them attacked me personally last night. It went right for my vaccination site, above my left deltoid muscle. This must mean something.
Maybe we should just surrender.
Wow. Takes a lot of mosquitos to feed that beast.
There are more of them on the mother ship?
No, only one. It’s kind of a Uber thing.
Notice they are not in SC. they use shotguns on them
to practice up for Dove season.
There are a bunch of cicada-looking creatures on one of my mom’s 2nd story window screens, but of course the lousy local paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says none will be in this area...
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