Chaos Ensues as Swarms of Cicadas Disturb Weather Radar, Causing Car Accident

Cicadas continue to swarm over the eastern United States, with swarms appearing on weather radar and even being blamed for a vehicle collision in one case.

The 17-year "Brood X" cicadas are hatching in such large quantities in Virginia that weather radar is picking them up. Over the weekend, meteorologists from the National Weather Service (NWS) offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. shared two photographs they believe depict cicada swarms picked up by weather radar. According to them, the algorithm reveals that colors are biological in nature.

"THIS IS NOT RAIN, AND THIS IS NOT GROUND CLUTTER," NBC meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts concurred on Twitter on Monday. "As a result, cicadas are most certainly being picked up by the radar beam."

Picked Up by Weather Radar

The "Hydrometeor Classification Algorithm," according to Kyle Pallozzi, an NWS meteorologist located in Virginia, allows meteorologists to distinguish between meteorological events and insects when the cicadas are plentiful enough for weather radar to pick them up.

"The chance that a radar beam is picking up hail, rain, snow, something biological, or more," the program says.

Skeptics

The activity was seen on weather radar, according to Howard Bernstein of WUSA9 in Washington, D.C., was not produced by cicadas. ", he explained "Cicadas can only fly around 500 feet above the earth... Because the radar beam is too high for where cicadas normally fly, I believe it is most likely not cicadas." "While there may be some mixed in near to the radar beam," Berstein continued, "it's probably birds, bats, or some other living creature than cicadas."

According to Andrew Farnsworth, the cicadas are likely flying under the radar, a Senior Research Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Cicadas are often ungainly fliers that tend to spend much of their time near to the ground, much below radar coverage," he said, adding that he's neither an entomologist nor a meteorologist.

He also believes the radar photos do not show cicadas because of their wing architecture, which he claims does not permit high-altitude flying.

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