this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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Weather and Meteorology

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Why are the rain clouds shaped in this way? (feddit.org)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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A bug in the matrix or just the radar? This is no normal cloud-shape, is it?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

A lot of weather radars have localized noise, I’ve noticed

The screenshot below has only one radar selected. Maybe the app you are using is displaying data from more than one radar?

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e58e2f13-f75a-454c-b8c1-44f0f306fd55.png

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Oooh, excellent point! The german weather service (DWD, which OP is using) has 17 operational weather radar... looks like an artefact to me!

EDIT: it's not an artefact, but insects!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Bingo! Nice find.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Wait, I'm wrong yet again!!!! "A bug in the matrix" in the description should have clued me in...

The DWD network is surely more reliable than this, and it's nice high pressure, so it's rain-free and plenty of updrafts, so it's perfect conditions for insects!! They cause enormous signals, no idea why I didn't think of it first.

(Seen recently in the news in the UK here )

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Damn, I thought insects was some English meterological term for special clouds, but really? Insects? Thats kind of amazing!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier!

One of my colleagues is doing radar bug-signal research. Supposedly, bugs show up as pretty bright signals on radar (similar size to raindrops!), and if you use doppler, you can pick up how fast the wind speed is by assuming the bugs are being transported by the wind

Also: lots of other fun things (bats, trains, smoke) show up on radar

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Sateliete from that point in time doesn't show the clouds either.

https://zoom.earth/maps/satellite/#view=50.668,10.116,6z/date=2024-07-19,13:15,+2

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I haven't heard about it, but it's the most reasonable explanation. The radars have been influenced by the swarms of insects, but only by those which were near to the radar-locations as it's described on the screenshot below.

The website is really old: https://www.radartutorial.eu/15.weather/wr22.en.html