Mystery deepens: Radar captures mysterious turbulence over Beebe, Ark. as doomed birds take flight
By: Mark Johnson CLEVELAND - They looked like newly developing thunderstorms, but they were not. Storms were well east of the Little Rock, Arkansas radar when the mysterious anomalies began to appear. Four times between 9pm, December 31st and 1am on January 1, these circular radar echoes popped up on NEXRAD Doppler radar, expanding outward and then fading away. All in about 15 to 20 minutes. What's more, each time, these anomalies developed in the exact same spot: over Beebe, Arkansas. At about 11:30pm, on New Years Eve, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling from the sky over Beebe. Beebe is located just under 30 miles form the Little Rock radar sight. That's close enough for any high-powered doppler radar to detect plumes of smoke, large colonies of insects...and large flocks of birds. In fact, its very common to see birds and insects taking flight on radar. it shows up as a large circular echo that gradually expands outward before disappearing a few minutes later.