Mayflies Caught on Radar
Mayflies: Caught on Radar
One of the various types of radars meteorologists use to track precipitation is called NEXRAD. Nexrad is a very sensitive radar. It can even pick up certain types of natural phenomena, including birds and bugs. National Weather Service office in LaCrosse, Wisconsin says: A large mayfly hatch occurred along the Mississippi River Friday evening, June 30th. The hatch began just after sundown, around 9 PM, and continued through the early morning hours. Those with plans outdoors Friday evening on and along the Mississippi River certainly noticed the huge swarm of mayflies, and their attraction to light. Some roads across the Mississippi River in and around LaCrosse were covered with bugs, piling into "drifts" on bridges over the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Local businesses with high intensity lighting soon found large piles of dead mayflies accumulating under the lights by midnight. The radar loop is from the National Weather Service Mississippi River channel... occurring simultaneously the entire length of the channel. The ambient wind flow was from the south on Friday evening, with the entire swarm of mayflies drifting north with time. The radar loop starts just before 9 PM CDT and ends around 1030 PM CDT.