If it seems that bugs are buzzing around more often and in greater numbers lately — whether swarms of ladybugs over California or hoverflies streaming in and out of England by the billions — it may simply be that radar technology is getting more efficient.

On Monday, Doug Kahn, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Cleveland, saw several bluish masses shifting and swelling over Ohio. The undulating blobs on the radar were not storm clouds or a weather system, but a swarm of dragonflies.

“There are millions of them,” he said. “That is why you can see so many of them on the radar.”

According to Mr. Kahn, 24, the Weather Service uses a dual-polarization radar capable of providing an almost 3-D image of whatever may be in the atmosphere.

The technology scans horizontally and vertically to take the dimensions of what is in the air, allowing meteorologists to figure out what is in the atmosphere even before they can see it in person, Mr. Kahn explained.