Radar Picks Up New Mexico Grasshopper/Locust Infestation in New Mexico

May 31 2014

WOW! Now THAT is a LOT of grasshoppers if RADAR is picking up on them!

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – It started out as a mystery that even the National Weather Service couldn’t solve.

Their Dopplar radar has been showing something moving over the Metro area each night.

Now they know that huge mass is a swarm of grasshoppers flying over Albuquerque.

“In this situation, we know that it’s something other than precipitation because the particles we’re sensing are not uniform – they’re busier,” said Brent Wachter, forecaster with NWS in Albuquerque.

Wachter says he’s occasionally seen activity from bats in the Jemez or cicadas, during particularly bad seasons but never a grasshopper swarm covering the entire Metro.

“We actually thought the radar was broke, so we had our technicians go out there a couple times,” he said. “They couldn’t find anything wrong, so we had to call the National Radar Depot in Oklahoma.”

The people in Oklahoma said they’d seen something like it before and asked whether Albuquerque was having any sort of insect infestation.

The radar shows that swarm of grasshoppers is flying about 1,000 feet in the air.

For perspective, that’s about three times the height of the Bank of Albuquerque. Read more or listen to video provided in this post 

Are you prepared?