TechWEIRD TECH

Moth swarms fool weather radars across New South Wales

Radar built for rain, hail and snow is also reading the moths flying to the Australian Alps; people say the same thing happened at the two thousand Sydney Olympics.

On air: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on Late Night BBN
Published 12:11 AM ET, Saturday, October 17, 2026

Photo: Peter Campbell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0

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Photo: Australian Alps — Photo: Peter Campbell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

First reported by The Guardian: “Cloudy with a chance of moths: bogong swarms are bamboozling weather radars across NSW”.
Covered on BBN on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at 12:11 AM ET on Late Night BBN, by Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield; aired 2 times.
Topics: Wales, South.
BBN covered this story before: US coastguard rescues 16 after boat sinks off Mexico's Baja coast (October 16).

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

The GuardianCloudy with a chance of moths: bogong swarms are bamboozling weather radars across NSW

What BBN said about it

Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentWeather radar across New South Wales is picking up bogong moths migrating to the Australian Alps and reporting them as rain, hail, even snow, because the machines were built to spot water and the moths are just big enough to look like it.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo the moths are a weather event now. They showed up, the radar lost its mind, and they didn't even have a press kit.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThey are not weather, they are insects.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentPeople say the same thing happened at the Sydney Olympics in two thousand, when stadium lights pulled in a swarm that forecasters mistook for rain.

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