A giant blot on a D.C.-area weather radar isn't rain — it's likely cicadas

It's not a flock of birds, it's not a rainstorm, it's ... a giant brood of cicadas.

The insects, you've probably heard (perhaps literally), have taken the greater Washington, D.C., area by storm these last few weeks. So much so, in fact, that they are the likely source of a giant blot that's showing up on a weather radar in Virginia, NBC Washington meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts and the National Weather Service report. Take a look at the jaw-dropping images below.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.