This won’t be the Baltimore one. We had them in 1987 and 2004. Won’t have them again until 2021.
AHA! The Balimer cicada. Who knew?
I was still living in Baltimore in 2004. In my neighborhood in NE Baltimore, it wasn’t that bad which was surprising since it was an old neighborhood with big yards and lots and lots of trees, at the time I even recall an entomologist on the local news saying that they would be more plentiful in areas were the ground hadn’t been disturbed much during the last 17 years, i.e. not in newer developments or where there was a lot of paving and places where there were not a lot of older trees.
But out in Timonium were I worked….ye gads, they were everywhere! They’d fly at full speed and smash into my 3rd floor office window all day long, every day I’d find at least a couple of them in my car, in the elevator, but the worst was when one would hitch a ride. There was nothing like sitting down at my desk after coming back from lunch and all of a sudden feel something on the back of my neck or in my hair and feel and hear the loud fluttering of wings. I wasn’t afraid of them per se, I know they are harmless and I do think they are kind of cool, but it would startle the heck out of me and I’d jump up and let out a loud shriek and it wasn’t just us gals in the office who reacted that way either : ),
Yeah, that's brood X (10), a.k.a. the "great eastern brood," and in the MD area it's WAY bigger than brood II (2) this year. I still vividly remember brood 10 from 1970 when I was in elementary school - really scary at that time - and from 1987. I moved from central to northern MD later, and in 2004 there were only a few pockets of brood 10 in this area. I don't really remember any other significant broods besides brood 10 in MD - the *really* big one - which as you say isn't due again until 2021.