'Thunderstorm' spotted covering 80-MILES of sky over San Diego was an swarm of ...

'Thunderstorm' spotted covering 10-MILES of sky over San Diego was an swarm of ladybirds, experts say The office for the National Weather Service tweeted a map of the insect cloud  Meteorologists thought it was a thunderstorm before making the discovery  They sent reporters outside to see if they could see signs of the thunderstorm Instead they saw the the mysterious blob was actually the swarm of insects flying overhead

By Victoria Bell For Mailonline

Published: 18:01 BST, 7 June 2019 | Updated: 18:16 BST, 7 June 2019

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An 10 mile wide cloud floating on a weather radar turned out to be a swarm of ladybirds, termed a 'bloom'.

The mysterious blob was baffling weather experts in San Diego in the US when it showed up on their radar, confusing it for a thunderstorm.

It wasn't until they looked into it further that they discovered it was thousands of the red and black insects flying together as a large mass.  

Experts are not sure what caused the mass migration, but they think the ladybirds could have been migrating to mate and eat lots of aphids, tiny green bugs. 

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An 80 mile wide cloud floating on a weather radar turned out to be a swarm of ladybirds, termed a 'bloom'. The mysterious blob was baffling weather experts in San Diego in the US when it showed up on their radar, confusing it for a thunderstorm

An 80 mile wide cloud floating on a weather radar turned out to be a swarm of ladybirds, termed a 'bloom'. The mysterious blob was baffling weather experts in San Diego in the US when it showed up on their radar, confusing it for a thunderstorm

The San Diego office for the National Weather Service tweeted a map of the huge insect cloud, which has since been retweeted thousands of times. 

They wrote: 'The large echo showing up on SoCal radar this evening is not precipitation, but actually a cloud of lady bugs termed a bloom.' 

The bloom of ladybirds was first thought to be around around 80 miles wide, but after further research the weather service said they were spread across 10 miles, and flew at a height of between 1,525 metres and 2,745 metres. 

Meteorologist Casey Oswant from the San Diego National Weather Service told NPR: 'It was very strange because it was a relatively clear day and we weren't really expecting any rain

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