Sources
Every source Tiddi uses, and how old its newest information is.
A quiet desert and an unwatched desert look the same in the data. Showing the age of every source is how the two can be told apart.
Why two records help. The newest survey in the FAO record is from 28 Oct 2026. The LWO bulletin runs 3 days further, to 31 Oct 2026, and reports 165 survey spots in that time, none with locusts. So the surveys did happen; FAO has not published them yet.
Latency ledger
green: connected and current · amber: connected, old · hollow: not connected
FAO Locust Hub (RAMSES)
12 days oldnewest observation 28 Oct 2026 · current
LWO field surveys — the record of who looked where, and what they found. Published in batches, roughly monthly.
13,892 surveys on record, 76 of them with locusts. Surveys happen almost daily; they are published in batches, so this record is usually a few weeks behind. Tiddi keeps every pull (since 26 September 2026): 715 new records seen arrive, published a median 18 days after the survey (90% within 27).
Pakistan and Iran surveys (FAO Locust Hub)
12 days oldnewest observation 28 Oct 2026 · current
The neighbours' own field surveys, where India's locusts breed before they arrive. Published in batches, roughly monthly.
Pakistan: 5,530 surveys on record, 0 in the last 30 days. Iran: 10,605, 72 in the last 30 days. Same FAO system as India's, from each country's own survey teams.
Weather upwind (Open-Meteo)
0 days oldnewest observation 9 Nov 2026 · current
Rain and soil moisture at 12 breeding areas in Pakistan and Iran, and where today's wind would carry a swarm from each. Every six hours.
Same thresholds as India's districts. Wind paths use the ECMWF forecast at 850 hPa and FAO's figures: swarms fly by day with the wind, not below about 20 °C, up to 130 km a day. Wind, not locusts.
2019–20 record
—newest observation 25 Aug 2020 · historical
The upsurge from the Empty Quarter to India: FAO's maps and account, and the districts named in the Ministry of Agriculture's releases. Fixed — history.
26 dated releases from the Press Information Bureau (July 2019 to September 2020), 98 districts drawn on their 2020 boundaries, FAO's infestation maps from June 2018 to June 2020, and 18 events from FAO's account. District lists are copied from the releases; nothing is filled in between them.
LWO bulletin (ppqs.gov.in)
9 days oldnewest observation 31 Oct 2026 · current
India's own fortnightly Desert Locust Situation Bulletin. Fortnightly.
The newest covers 16th to 31st October, 2026 and reports 165 survey spots with no locusts.
Weather and soil (ECMWF, on Maplore's server)
0 days oldnewest observation 9 Nov 2026 · current
Rain, soil moisture and wind: what locusts need to breed, and what carries swarms. The olive shading on the map is this, not a survey. Every six hours.
The only source that speaks about today. Rain over 30 days and soil moisture at egg depth (the 7–28 cm layer; eggs are laid at 10–15 cm) for each district, from ECMWF on Maplore's own weather server, compared with the FAO breeding guides of about 25 mm and 0.15 m³/m³. This is weather, not a sighting.
“Age” is the gap between today and the newest observation a source carries — not the time since we last fetched it. We re-fetch RAMSES every six hours; that does not make its contents any newer.