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ST. GEORGE — In news that's not really news to most in Southern Utah, another grasshopper infestation is taking place.
While it's not known if this infestation will rival the infamous 2019 hopper invasion, the winged insects are making their presence known – especially at night.
A look at the weather radar Wednesday night looks like Las Vegas, St. George and Cedar City were inundated by a strong monsoon storm. But there was no rain in any of those cities last night. It was just the swarms of migrating grasshoppers showing up in the radar.
The weather radar patterns look similar to the 2019 infestation with a massive signal around Las Vegas at the start of the night, then a glob moving off the northeast corner into the St. George area. That locust invasion started in June and reached its peak in July.
University of Oklahoma insect ecologist Elske Tielens — who authored the 2021 study that determined the cause behind the 2019 infestation was the strong light sources of the three cities in the dark western desert — has previously told St. George News that the ideal conditions for a grasshopper invasion are the kind of rainy winter the area experienced in the past couple of months that took local rivers to their highest levels in decades.
"For a large outbreak, you need the build up of several generations of grasshoppers, which happens when there are wet conditions earlier in the year and consequently lots of vegetation for the grasshoppers to feed on," Tielens told St. George News in late 2022.
