Slashdot Mirror
Massive 70-Mile-Wide Butterfly Swarm Shows Up On Denver Radar System (bbc.com)
dryriver shares a report from BBC: A colorful, shimmering spectacle detected by weather radar over the U.S. state of Colorado has been identified as swarms of migrating butterflies. Scientists at the National Weather Service (NWS) first mistook the orange radar blob for birds and had asked the public to help identifying the species. They later established that the 70-mile wide (110km) mass was a kaleidoscope of Painted Lady butterflies. Forecasters say it is uncommon for flying insects to be detected by radar. "We hadn't seen a signature like that in a while," said NWS meteorologist Paul Schlatter, who first spotted the radar blip. "We detect migrating birds all the time, but they were flying north to south," he told CBS News, explaining that this direction of travel would be unusual for migratory birds for the time of year. So he put the question to Twitter, asking for help determining the bird species. Almost every response he received was the same: "Butterflies." Namely the three-inch long Painted Lady butterfly, which has descended in clouds on the Denver area in recent weeks. The species, commonly mistaken for monarch butterflies, are found across the continental United States, and travel to northern Mexico and the U.S. southwest during colder months. They are known to follow wind patterns, and can glide hundreds of miles each day.
Cynthia?
Why would it be unusual to see migratory birds going from north to south this time of year? That seems like what we'd expect from any migratory creature.
Also, Paul Schlatter knows his stuff, so I don't think it's his error, but rather the reporter. It is very common for flying insects to be detected by radar, despite what the article says. More likely, it's rare to detect swarms of migratory insects. However, we see insects all the time on weather radar, usually seen as an area of relatively low reflectivity compared to storms (say, 10-20 dBZ, compared with 50 dBZ for storms) and it's seen close to the radar where the beam isn't too far above the ground. Sometimes the winds converge and cause the concentration of insects to increase in an area. When the winds converge, the air generally rises, but the insects resist ascending to a higher altitude. We see this a lot of times along fronts, drylines, outflow boundaries, and horizontal convective rolls. They usually appear as a line, usually a few kilometers wide, of stronger reflectivity (perhaps 20-25 dBZ), and it allows us to see where things like fronts and outflow boundaries are. We also use the motion of the insects with increasing height (as the beam gets farther from the radar) to estimate the wind speed and direction in the lowest kilometer or two of the atmosphere.
When it's warm enough, it's usually very common to detect insects with weather radar. Sometimes this is actually very useful to meteorologists, too.
...local high school car washes set fundraising records.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Need to make a horror movie starring a swarm of...butterflies.
At the start of Bruce Sterling's novel "Schismatrix", there's an assassination via a swarm of genetically modified moths.
Butterflies flap their wings in Denver and radar systems go nuts.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Oh, that's just your mom. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
When I was in the Navy we would pick up schools of porpoises on the radar. The sea has to be perfectly calm when the school approaches, their splashing looks like a small cloud on the radar screen. The sonar picked them up too, sounds like a basketball game with the guys' sneakers squeaking on the floor.
As well, I spend a lot of time on the mountain roads in Northern Pennsylvania. There are often clearings for gas lines that run alongside the dirt roads. Some people or groups have apparently been dropping milkweed seeds along these miles of clearing. This summer has seen a huge number of Monarch butterflies flitting about. Being a migratory critter that over time and generations heads to Mexico and back, Denver or other places might expect radar clouds of this species as well.
Final side note - I've been on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry between South New Jersey and Delaware, and you can see Monarchs flying across the bay on a 20 plus mile ride. I've seen them draft the ferry as well, which is a strange sight.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Imagine the butterfly effect with that many butterflies. We know why there's so many tornadoes in the U.S.A. now!
Why the hell is it called a BUTTER-FLY anyway?
#DeleteFacebook
Why the hell is it called a BUTTER-FLY anyway?
https://xkcd.com/1012/
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.