Post by willie with tan lines on Oct 11, 2017 2:05:40 GMT -8
Weather radar doesn't just pick up rain and snow, it can also detect other objects such as birds, insects and even flying debris during tornadoes.
That's what happened earlier this week in Colorado, where a weather radar there "saw" what turned out to be a 70-mile-wide swarm of butterflies.
The butterflies in question were painted ladies, which are sometimes mistaken for monarch butterflies. The bugs have descended on Colorado’s Front Range in recent weeks, feeding on flowers and sometimes flying together in what seem like clouds.
At first, meteorologists thought they were birds, since "insects rarely produce such a coherent radar signature," according to the National Weather Service in Boulder. "Migrating birds do all the time."
...
That's what happened earlier this week in Colorado, where a weather radar there "saw" what turned out to be a 70-mile-wide swarm of butterflies.
The butterflies in question were painted ladies, which are sometimes mistaken for monarch butterflies. The bugs have descended on Colorado’s Front Range in recent weeks, feeding on flowers and sometimes flying together in what seem like clouds.
At first, meteorologists thought they were birds, since "insects rarely produce such a coherent radar signature," according to the National Weather Service in Boulder. "Migrating birds do all the time."
...
www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/10/06/huge-butterfly-swarm-detected-weather-radar-colorado/739669001/