There were so many flying ants about this weekend that they appeared as rainfall on weather radars across the UK.

Millions and millions of insects were out in the sky during the yearly phenomenon, meaning weather radars could even pick up their presence, mistaking them for raindrops.

Flying Ant Day falls comes around every year and is typically a time when swarms of flying ants can be seen swirling through the air, landing on trees, grass, homes and cars.

This year, on Sunday July 12, Flying Ant Day brought so many insects to our skies they were picked up on weather radars as rain. The story was spoken about on Good Morning Britain earlier today (Monday July 13) and shared across social media.

The video was captioned: "Did you see millions of flying ants yesterday?

"There were so many insects in the sky, the weather radars could even pick up their presence, mistaking them for raindrops.

"@Lauratobin1 's got the flying ant report this morning."

In the video Laura Tobin explains why the ants were picked up on the radar. She said: "People may have seen yesterday there were lots of flying ants about.

"It was flying ant day and I have actually got a radar showing flying ants.

Video Loading

"It looks like rain on the radar but this little area here and this area here, are where millions and millions of flying ants were picked up by the radar so it looks like it was rain."

She added: "So a radar works by a signal going out hitting a rain drop coming back and telling you it's raining. So the signal went out, hit all of the flying ants, and came back again to show the area."

At the end of the video Laura can also be heard saying it was flying ants day because it was the day they all hatch and come out, but now that has passed we shouldn't see as many again as they are now gone.

Why does Flying Ant Day happen?

This phenomenon happens when males and new queens venture out of the nest to mate, according to the Royal Society of Biology.

Many colonies do this at the same time when the weather conditions are just right.

Ants, including the black garden ant Lasius niger, do this to start new colonies.

New ant colonies start when a female flying ant leaves their former colony to start a new one.

Download the InYourArea app





Download the InYourArea app today for iOS or Android.

You can spot the queen because she is larger than the female worker ants and has wings.

Both males and females fly on this day, going away from their nest to try and mate with an ant from another colony and begin a new colony.

The Royal Society of Biology explains the mating process: "When far enough away, the females and males commence breeding, with mating taking place during flight and the male dying shortly after.

"The fertilised female then lands, chews off her wings, then goes about creating a new colony or finding an existing one and starts to produce offspring."