Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

The grasshopper swarm in Las Vegas was so big it looked like a storm on weather radar

Ed Komenda USA TODAY•July 30, 2019

LAS VEGAS – On Friday night, meteorologists in southern Nevada looked at the pulsing green images on the weather radar and discovered there was much more to it than the raindrops of scattered thunderstorms swirling on the screen.

“Insect swarms,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kate Guillet said.

Most of the flurry found on the screen, she said, was a sprawling swarm of pallid-winged grasshoppers now plaguing the neon lights, streets and sidewalks of Las Vegas. 

The service posted a photo of the radar images to Twitter Friday night, showing what looked like a large storm moving east-to-west across the Las Vegas Valley.

While some of the activity in the northern sector of the radar display included rain, a majority of the green coloring in the southern half of Las Vegas represented an insect invasion so large it registered on weather radar.

“Haven’t seen something like this in a long time,” Guillet said.

Grasshopper invasion: Grasshoppers are invading Las Vegas. And they might not leave for weeks

Biological targets

The National Weather Service upgraded its radar system in the spring of 2012.

Enhancements made the service’s weather sampling capabilities much more sensitive, able to differentiate between large raindrops, small raindrops – and sometimes even biological entities.

The most common “biological targets” captured on weather radar in southern Nevada are birds and bats.

Grasshoppers on the move

A wet spring expedited the insect swarm’s northern migration, but the bugs are not dangerous. 

“They don’t carry any diseases, they don’t bite, they’re not even one of the species that we consider a problem,” said Jeff Knight, an entomologist with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. “They probably won’t cause much damage in a yard.”

The grasshoppers are attracted to ultraviolet light. That’s why the insects are often found swarming glowing bulbs of white light.  

The jumpy bugs are likely to remain in transit across southern Nevada over the next several weeks, Knight said.

The state has records as far back as the early 1960s of Nevada grasshopper invasions. In three decades as an entomologist, Knight has seen the insects visit southern Nevada four or five times.

In 2010, state agriculture officials geared up for a springtime invasion of crop-eating grasshoppers in northern Nevada.