This “Ladybug Bloom” Was So Huge, Meteorologists Thought It Was a Cloud

From Prevention

• A ladybug bloom was spotted in southern California by the National Weather Service on Tuesday.

• The swarm of ladybugs, 80-by-80 miles in size, was so large that meteorologists thought it was a cloud.

• Ladybugs are known to be migratory beetles, but the size of this swarm alerted the NWS.

Imagine sitting by the pool enjoying the warm weather, when suddenly your tanning rays are blocked by-not a cloud-but a MASSIVE swarm of ladybugs. Cute? Terrifying? We aren’t sure.

As pleasant as it is to find one of these “good luck bugs” hanging around every now and then, the National Weather Service (NWS) just spotted something on their radar we haven’t really seen before. On Tuesday, NWS meteorologists noticed a big green blob near Wrightwood in southern California that puzzled the entire room.

“It was very strange because it was a relatively clear day and we weren’t really expecting any rain or thunderstorms,” Casey Oswant, a NWS meteorologist in San Diego, told NPR. “But on our radar, we were seeing something that indicated there was something out there.”

So they sent a weather spotter to investigate, and what he found was a giant swarm of ladybugs (yes, really!). The phenomenon, known as a “ladybug bloom” was an 80-by-80 mile group of ladybugs flying about 5,000 to 10,000 feet in the air. The bloom, densest in a 10-mile mass in the middle, could be seen by those below as flying little specks.

Apparently, it’s not the first time local meteorologists have seen this kind of thing. Convergent lady beetles, which are abundant in California, have been known to migrate. “They’ll cycle between the lush valleys in California and then when it starts to warm up, they’ll go up in the mountains, where it’s a little cooler,” Oswant said.

The mass of beetles was spotted heading south just before 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, though the weather watchers have since lost sight of them. Hopefully, they found their way.

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