1988: Hurricane Joan causes locusts to cross Atlantic

An area of thunderstorms formed on the west coast of Africa in mid-October 1988 just as swarms of locusts were inundating the region. The storms had loosely held together until they reached the central Atlantic Ocean a few days later were conditions where favorable for further tropical development. The system rapidly developed into Tropical storm and then Hurricane Joan. Winds high in the atmosphere carried Hurricane Joan across the Atlantic to Dominica, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and other nearby islands. In addition to heavy rains, Joan brought those islands something else from the sky on October 21, 1988, locusts. Apparently carried into the atmosphere by winds blowing from those thunderstorms that formed on the African coast days earlier, the locusts survived the trip across the Atlantic and found a new home in the Caribbean.

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