This radar blip in Oklahoma was not a storm

Something very cool happened during all of the severe weather coverage across Oklahoma during April, but it never popped up on social media until now.

It was the evening of the Enid EF4 tornado, but long before that storm even popped up on the radar.

At the time, there was a big supercell up in Grant County near Renfro that was spinning up some impressive, but ultimately weak twisters. While the coverage of that storm moved into Kay County, another big blip went flying up on the radar way out west near the Alabaster Caverns.

What was it? Bats. Tens of thousands of bats taking to the sky as the evening progressed to go feed.

Their cluster was so massive, it showed up on radar as a small, compact system. And in the chaos that was tornado chasing in real time, the meteorologists just mentioned what that blip was and moved on to issue warnings out to the town of Braman.

It was neat because you don't think "bats" when you ponder Oklahoma. This is more of a San Antonio thing, or at least I thought that. The Sooner State is home to 22 different species of bats, and of those, there are some huge populations that made a home in our different state cave systems.

Now, I've waited to see if that footage would reach social media, but it hasn't. Luckily, in a completely different part of the state with a massive bat population, that interesting radar footage has hit TikTok.

@ekeen369 05/02/2026 Check out this amazing radar return of bats leaving a cave near Mangum, Oklahoma within the last two hours! How fascinating! #radar #bats #oklahoma #weatherwise ♬ Suspense｜Heavy bass line of unsettling tension - Timeless AI

If you're not familiar with the area around Mangum, that's the Gypsum Hills. Some of it is shining white hills of minerals on the horizon, some of it is badlands. It's all uniquely stunning and stretches all across Western OK.

The cave system there is known as Jester's Cave.

It's not just bats calling it home either, legend says this cave system was once the hideout of Jesse James and the James Gang... Once upon a time in the west...

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