If the sky seems busy tonight…it’s the birds! Last night was a HUGE night for migration across Indiana. Tonight should still be busy, although the intensity shifts eastward.
Bird migration forecasts attempt to predict nocturnal migration 3 hours after local sunset and are updated every 6 hours. These forecasts come from models trained on the last 23 years of bird movements in the atmosphere as detected by the US NEXRAD weather surveillance radar network. In these models we use the Global Forecasting System (GFS) to predict suitable conditions for migration occurring three hours after local sunset.
These maps also show precipitation forecasts (outlined and shown in grayscale). Note, areas forecast to experience precipitation and bird migration may overlap, and predictions for migration intensity may be highly variable in these locations.
Colorado State University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology currently produce these forecasts. Leon Levy Foundation, Edward W. Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission supported this research, with additional support from University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Oklahoma. The BirdCast project was created with grant awards from the National Science Foundation and subsequently supported by awards from Leon Levy Foundation. Go here to access the info directly.
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