Radar captures a living cloud hovering over Ohio, photos show. ‘They’re baaaaaack’
_fitted.png "A large cloud-like formation was spotted on weather radar in Ohio, but it’s not rain or hail, officials say.")
Weather radar recently captured a strange cloud bearing down on Ohio, but it wasn’t rain or hail, officials say. It was a tremendous swarm of bugs.
“They’re baaaaack,” the National Weather Service in Cleveland said in a tweet, sharing images of a cloud-like formation shifting over a large swath of northern Ohio, nearly covering three counties.
Midges are the culprit, officials said. The small, winged insects are a species of fly, and they’re invading the region in great enough numbers to appear on radar.
Neighboring Michigan is also being bugged, tweets show.
Though midges are “astonishingly abundant,” and form “humming clouds” that annoy many across the upper Midwest — and other parts of the northern hemisphere — they are harmless, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
May is their peak month, with midge larvae emerging from lakes in their winged adult form as the water warms, according to the university. With just days to live, the midges partake in a mad dash to reproduce before they die.
The midges seen on radar in Ohio have coated people’s homes and garages, Cleveland.com reported. While they may be a gross nuisance to some, they are also a great seasonal source of food in the ecosystem, and a sign that Lake Erie is healthy.
This story was originally published May 21, 2023 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Radar captures a living cloud hovering over Ohio, photos show. ‘They’re baaaaaack’."