80-mile swarm of ladybugs shows up on meteorologists’ radar

The National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted Wednesday about a swarm of ladybugs moving through Southern California that is so large it registered as a weather mass on their radars.

“The large echo showing up on SoCal radar this evening is not precipitation, but actually a cloud of lady bugs termed a ‘bloom’ #CAwx,” NWS San Diego said.

The large echo showing up on SoCal radar this evening is not precipitation, but actually a cloud of lady bugs termed a “bloom” #CAwx pic.twitter.com/1C0rt0in6z

— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) June 5, 2019

{mosads}The cloud of bugs was measured at about 80 miles by 80 miles, meteorologist Joe Dandrea told the Los Angeles Times. In the air, the bugs were estimated to be spread out between 5,000 feet and 9,000 feet, which might make them look less concentrated to observers on the ground, ABC News 7 reported.

The “bloom” was heading through the San Diego area in the direction of the Inland Empire.

This is reportedly a common time for ladybugs to migrate to higher elevations to look for food, the University of California Pest Management Program told ABC News 7.