Bogong moth swarms are fooling weather radars in New South Wales

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Guardian reports that swarms of bogong moths migrating toward the Australian Alps are showing up on New South Wales weather radar as if they were rain.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo tonight's question for the couch: is a big enough cloud of moths officially weather?

3. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorYes, absolutely, and I say that as a man who once got trapped in a traffic jam that had actual doppler signatures.

4. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorIf the radar sees it and people are stuck in it, it's weather.

5. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorNo. Weather is what the sky does to us. Moths are what we did to the sky, with our stadium lights.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Sydney Olympics in two thousand, Dale. Stadium lights drew a swarm so big that forecasters mistook it for rain.

7. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorExactly my point.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorTwenty-six years later they're back, and the radar still can't tell a moth from a hailstorm. I'd call that the real forecast.

9. 

   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo if moths are weather, does that mean a locust plague is just a really aggressive low pressure system?

10. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorWith a parking low and a cart front. Fine, I've changed sides.

11. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYou changed sides because Chip made it about parking.

12. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorIt was a very good parking low.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorHands up if a swarm of moths counts as weather. Chip and Dale. Chat, cast your own vote.

14. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI say no, which makes it a tie, and the radar would have called it a draw.