Grasshopper swarm likely showing up on Las Vegas weather radar, experts say

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Afraid of bugs? Don't head to Nevada's Las Vegas Valley.

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According to the Review-Journal, swarms of grasshoppers have descended on the region, appearing just about everywhere – including the weather radar.

The National Weather Service's Las Vegas office confirmed in a Friday tweet that the insects were likely to blame for some recent false reports of rain.

"Some of you have been asking about the widespread radar returns the past few nights in #Vegas," the tweet read. "Radar analysis suggests most of these echoes are biological targets. This typically includes birds, bats, and bugs, and most likely in our case--> Grasshoppers."

>> See the tweet here

The reason? The weather radar can pick up anything traveling at an altitude of few thousand feet, the Review-Journal reported. And there are more grasshoppers than usual in the area thanks to wet weather earlier this year, experts said.

The insects, which are migrating north, should be gone "within a few weeks," the newspaper reported.

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