Massive swarm of grasshoppers and beetles on its way to Oklahoma

While much of the country was posting about a fake shark attack that came in the form of a tornado (Sharknado 3), a real life infestation was roaming the plains of Texas Wednesday.

According to National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, a large swarm of grasshoppers and beetles is heading through Texas and into Oklahoma. The insects were flying over Knox County, Texas and were captured on radar heading to Northeast Oklahoma.

By Thursday afternoon, the swarm has made it to Fredrick, Oklahoma.

“It’s fairly common during the warm season,” said Forrest Mitchell, Observations Program Leader at the National Weather Service. “It’s a testament of the sensitivity of the radars we use. It is difficult to correlate a specific amount of insects to what the radar is seeing because it depends on the size and proximity of the insects as they fly.”

According to Mitchell, the radar shows the swarm of insects flying from the ground up to 2,500 feet, covering a distance of over 50 miles.

Rangers at Copper Breaks State Park in Quanah, Texas confirmed that the radar is picking up a large swarm. JoplinGlobe