Kansas City International Airport (MCI) recorded the wettest month in KC history this year during May. So far through June its the wettest start to a year in KC ever. Now I’m some distance from MCI but I can attest to the fact May was ridiculously wet at my place. Every storm that came by hit me. Usually with heavy rain. My little creek flooded four times in May. I don’t think its flooded four times all year before.
Whats interesting has been the effect on lightning bugs. In May it would be typical to see a dozen or so every night with ever increasing numbers as June approached. For most of May I didn’t see a single firefly at night. By end of month I was seeing one or two. Unbelievable.
The question then became would the lightning bugs recover or would this wet weather completely change their cycle? By the end of May parts of my backyard were like a swamp with water standing on the ground. It had nowhere to go, everything was saturated. Its worth noting that the annual firefly display is a mating ritual and that marks the end of that cycle of their life.
Over the past week or so their numbers have risen substantially around my house. Substantial being a relative term since going from a few to several dozen visible is a big jump. Still, as best I can tell this will not be a magical year with hundreds and hundreds of them visible at once. So it seems the wet weather delayed their emergence from the ground. It remains to be seen if the current nightly display is this years peak or if it will last a bit longer than usual.