vastateofmind

Same here. For just over a week now, I've not had to turn on the ambient and/or focusing playlists while working, and just open the window to let the cicada song in. Ultra soothing. When we take the dog for a walk next door at the heavily-wooded Coast Guard telecom/IT base, it's way louder, though again, not uncomfortably so -- and it's more "surround sound" over there! Perhaps most interesting, to @H2O's point, I've clearly heard the distinct song of each of the three periodical cicada species for the first time, often right outside my home office window. This has, hands down, been THE best brood emergence I've witnessed in my life in terms of the sights, sounds and entire experience. Yeah, they're ugly....but I'm gonna miss these gentle giants when they start dying off in a week or two. I'd take an overflowing yard-ful of periodical cicadas any year, over the annual return of mosquitos and biting flies.

SOOO many fliers out and about! No matter which window you look out, you can see 5-10 at any given time trying to get somewhere. And yeah, they are humorously bad navigators. I'm also starting to see the only part about periodical cicada visits that I really don't like -- the brown/dying outermost 1-2 feet of tree branches on trees hanging down, from the point where mama cicadas have dug into the branches and laid their eggs. Good! I've had the windows open almost every day this week....I love working to the sound of that alien "coooooooo."

I was surprised at the punch the first two rounds packed yesterday -- the 5 p.m. hour was somewhat impressive on radar on approach, but then seemed to reserve its worst for just south, Dale City/Woodbridge. But man, that 8 p.m. round....a direct hit and a solid light/sound show. That line looked a little more compact but stronger on radar. I usually take too many pics of wx, but (of course) was in the shower when Round 2 approached/came through last night, when so many great pics captured around the sub. Interesting day to track severe, for sure.

Geez. Ranson turning into the new LaPlata.

What device did you use to snap that? Interesting user interface...

96/72, though breezy enough to take the edge off. Just got STW alert, but doesn't look too bad to my immediate west -- most of the action appears to be north of the District.

Cleared off completely within past hour, up to 83 IMBY. Clearly, the cicadas are digging the return to sunny weather and turning up the volume a bit more.

Yeah, I was rather hoping that we could do WITHOUT the "electric-like," or annual cicadas this early in the season. The super-warm days we've already had apparently have drawn them out early. I've opened the windows in the house for fresh air, but even before I did you could CLEARLY hear the periodical cicadas singing. They are loud today.

I'll trade today for a mostly nice weekend...which is now looking somewhat improved for Sunday/Monday at least.

.6" of much needed precip here so far today -- we've had a light, steady rain for the past two hours. And yeah, SO nice to have at least some of the pollen washed away, my allergies were killing me again the past two days. We have several windows open right now to let some fresh air in. I did miss the soothing mass chorus of cicada song today. I didn't know if prolonged rain had an effect on their song...but apparently it does (?)

Our Catonsville friends came down to meet us for dinner in Old Town Alexandria Saturday afternoon/evening...I think we should've traveled north to meet them for dinner in the Baltimore area instead! I think it was partly the moderate weather, partly because folks are feeling safer going out, and partly because the lowest two blocks of King St. just before the waterfront is open only to pedestrian traffic now, but....Old Town and the waterfront was positively mobbed with hundreds of folks from early afternoon throughout the entire evening. Like, I've never seen those few blocks down by the Alexandria waterfront THAT crowded in 30+ years of living here...shoulder to shoulder in areas. If that means what I think it means....hearty congrats to you, @Baltimorewx!

Agreed. I remember more washed-out (or mostly so) Memorial Day weekends around here than ones with nice/acceptable wx over the past couple of decades. We rarely host holiday parties during that weekend because we/our friends are traveling, but this year we've scheduled two cookouts next weekend. Needless to say, we're watching the forecast like hawks.

Oh, Lordy. I've been trying to enjoy this emergence and delay thinking what you've written here. Let's just say that the next time Brood X emerges, I'll be well north of the minimum age for Social Security.

Yeah, this is a ludicrous trend. I don't get it. And I love pickups, just not...this. Okay, I laughed WAY too hard at this. These are "my people"...I have a handful of HS friends still living in my hometown in northern PA who would talk about, and long for, this vehicle in just this way. In any event, thanks for the find -- I've now pressed the "subscribe" button on the "Wayne County Lyfe" YouTube channel.

Currently 72, with a light though steady rain for the past 40 minutes. That crunchy, brownish center strip down the middle of MBY will lap it up, though it looks like the back edge isn't too far west. Oh, and cicadas ALL over the back patios...just when I think there can't be more than the day before, more show up. And they apparently take no issue with sitting out in the rain...though I'm curious to see if they'll start chorusing this morning during the rain.

93 here, with 34% humidity. Nice breeze makes it possible to enjoy the patio (in the shade)...

93 right now IMBY, though only 34% humidity -- bearable (for me), especially with breezy conditions again today. But I sat outside in the backyard too long yesterday and paid for it...my seasonal allergy symptoms returned with a vengeance last night.

It's funny, too, when a stiff breeze goes through, the "overall volume knob" on the cicada chorusing gets turned down a notch or two...I picture them stopping their song to dig in and hold onto their branch until the worst of the breeze passes through, and then they turn that knob back up to 11! BTW, consistent and pretty loud cicada song yesterday and today -- though not annoyingly so. We've had to increase the volume on our outdoor patio speaker by a couple notches, as the cicadas were pretty effectively drowning out the music this weekend. I can't remember from 2004...do we peak for 1-2 weeks like this, and then the drone dies off as the mature adults start concluding their orgy and dying off?

I remember the pic of your beautiful weeping cherry. I'm sure it wasn't that tall 17 years ago, but I would think that, with its "skinnier" branches, that it would be desirably easier for mama cicadas back then to place those eggs in the finer branches of that type of tree than other tree types. Who knows with these buggers? I've got mature dogwoods and hollies that they totally ignore, while the nymphs and fliers routinely storm our oaks and maples.

You guys are at a slightly higher elevation though, right? As high as where, say, PSU lives? I wonder if that has anything to do with it....

Oh, and we'll be waiting with all of the good over-the-hill memes...

I hope you have an awesome milestone birthday, @H2O!!

I know, right? But I've always loved @H2O's avatar...it brings up great memories of watching Harvey Korman on all the Carol Burnette reruns I grew up with. Also, his video of periodical carcasses surrounding the base of his tree mirrors that of two mature trees on my property. The last several mornings, the tree trunks themselves, as far up as about 8-10 feet have been covered with newly molted cicadas drying in the morning sun. Also have been hearing sustained chorusing since about Tuesday (not unlike the vid that @Paleocene shared a few posts back), and getting a bit louder/stronger each day but it still comes and goes in waves...and sometimes in the middle of the day it just stops. I just searched but didn't find a definitive answer -- do the periodicals sing all day long, just at daybreak and nightfall mostly, or on some other schedule?