[meteorite-list] Weird, Weird Rain

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Mar 8 12:49:47 2006
Message-ID: <200603081748.k28Hm0m12535_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa082602a.htm

Weird, Weird Rain
About

Heads up! There's all kinds of strange stuff falling from the sky:
frogs, sardines, jellyfish, alligators and maybe - just maybe - cows!
Here are some documented cases of really weird precipitation.

As I sit writing this week's feature and glance out my home office
window, it's pouring rain outside. One might say it's raining cats and
dogs. Not literally, of course. But that's not to say that at times in
many areas around the world that it hasn't rained things just as strange
as felines and canines. Sometimes, things even stranger.

Weird rain is one of the more bizarre - and still largely unexplained -
phenomena that is periodically (yet continually) reported from all
corners of the globe. There have been accounts of frog rain, fish rain,
squid rain, worm rain, even alligator rain. The logical explanation for
the odd occurrences is that a tornado or strong whirlwind picked up the
animals from a shallow body of water and carried them - sometimes for
hundreds of miles - before dropping them on a bewildered populace. This
explanation has yet to be proved, and it can't quite account for all of
the documented incidents, as you'll see below.

Here are some of the more unusual cases - a small sampling from
thousands of reports over the years - that defy all rational explanation.

Frogs

    * In 1873, Scientific American reported that Kansas City, Missouri
      was blanketed with frogs that dropped from the sky during a storm.
    * Minneapolis, Minnesota was pelted with frogs and toads in July,
      1901. A news item stated: "When the storm was at its highest...
      there appeared as if descending directly from the sky a huge green
      mass. Then followed a peculiar patter, unlike that of rain or
      hail. When the storm abated the people found, three inches deep
      and covering an area of more than four blocks, a collection of a
      most striking variety of frogs... so thick in some places [that]
      travel was impossible."
    * The citizens of Naphlion, a city in southern Greece, were
      surprised one morning in May, 1981, when they awoke to find small
      green frogs falling from the sky. Weighing just a few ounces each,
      the frogs landed in trees and plopped into the streets. The Greek
      Meteorological Institute surmised they were picked up by a strong
      wind. It must have been a very strong wind. The species of frog
      was native to North Africa!
    * In 1995, reports Fortean Times Online
      <http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.forteantimes.com/>,
      Nellie Straw of Sheffield, England, was driving through Scotland
      on holiday with her family when they encountered a severe storm.
      Along with the heavy rain, however, hundreds of frogs suddenly
      pelted her car.

Fish

    * A powerful whirlwind might explain a rain of small fish, but it
      cannot account for the ones that fell on a village in India. As
      many as 10 people reported picking up fish that weighed as much as
      eight pounds that had come crashing down on them.
    * In February, 1861, folks in many areas of Singapore reported a
      rain of fish following an earthquake. How could the two possibly
      correlate?
    * Golfers dread gathering clouds and a rain that might ruin their
      game. But imagine the consternation of several duffers in
      Bournemouth, England, in 1948 who received a shower of herring.
    * Priests often pray for blessings from above... but fish? In 1966,
      Father Leonard Bourne was dashing through a downpour across a
      courtyard in North Sydney, Australia, when a large fish fell from
      the sky and landed on his shoulder. The priest nearly caught it as
      it slid down his chest, but it squirmed away, fell to the flooded
      ground and swam away.
    * These things don't always happen in a heavy rain. In 1989, in
      Ipswich, Australia, Harold and Degen's front lawn was covered with
      about 800 "sardines" that rained from above during a light shower.
    * This report is most unusual: In an otherwise clear sky in
      Chilatchee, Alabama in 1956, a woman and her husband watched as a
      small dark cloud formed in the sky. When it was overhead, the
      cloud released its contents: rain, catfish, bass and bream - all
      of the fish alive. The dark cloud had turned to white, then dispersed.

Flesh and Blood

    * In 1890, Popular Science News reported that blood rained down
      </gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.strangemag.com/actualbloodfalls.html>
      on Messignadi, Calabria in Italy - bird's blood. It was speculated
      that the birds were somehow torn part by violent winds, although
      there were no such winds at the time. And no other parts of the
      bird came down - just blood.
    * J. Hudson's farm in Los Nietos Township, California endured a rain
      of flesh and blood
      </gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.strangemag.com/actualbloodfalls.html>
      for three minutes in 1869. The grisly fall covered several acres.
    * The American Journal of Science confirmed a shower of blood, fat
      and muscle tissue
      </gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.strangemag.com/tennesseefleshandbloodfall.html>
      that fell on a tobacco farm near Lebanon, Tennessee in August,
      1841. Field workers, who actually experienced this weird shower,
      said they heard a rattling noise and saw "drops of blood, as they
      supposed...fell from a red cloud which was flying over."

Miscellaneous

    * In 1881, a thunderstorm in Worcester, England, brought down tons
      of periwinkles and hermit crabs.
    * In November, 1996, a town in southern Tasmania was slimed! Several
      residents woke up on a Sunday morning after a night of violent
      thunderstorms to find a strange, white-clear jelly-like substance
      on their property. Apparently, it had rained either fish eggs or
      baby jellyfish.
    * A Korean fisherman, trolling off the coast of the Falkland
      Islands, was knocked unconscious by a single frozen squid that
      fell from the sky and konked him on the head.
    * In July, 2001, a red rain fell on Kerala, India. At first it was thought
      that a meteor was responsible for the strange-colored rain, but an analysis
      showed that the water was filled with fungal spores. Still, where did all
      of those red spores come from to be rained down in such concentration?
    * From about 1982 to 1986, kernels of corn have rained down on
      several houses in Evans, Colorado - tons of it, according to Gary
      Bryan, one of the residents. Oddly, there were no cornfields in
      the area that might account for the phenomenon.
    * In August, 2001, the Wichita, Kansas area experienced an
      unexplained rain of corn husks. The news report stated that
      "thousands of dried corn leaves fell over east Wichita - from
      about Central Avenue to 37th Street North, along Woodlawn
      Boulevard and on east - each about 20 to 30 inches long."
    * In 1877, several one-foot-long alligators fell on J. L. Smith's
      farm in South Carolina. They landed, unharmed, and started
      crawling around, reported The New York Times.

Perhaps the most bizarre report is one that, unfortunately, cannot be
confirmed. It may be just the stuff of urban legend, but it's so weird
and so amusing that had to be included. I'll leave it up to you to
decide whether or not it's true.

Sometime around 1990, a Japanese fishing boat was sunk in the Sea of
Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Siberia by a falling cow. When the crew
of the wrecked ship were fished from the water, they told authorities
that they had seen several cows falling from the sky, and that one of
them crashed straight through the deck and hull. At first, the story
goes, the fishermen were arrested for trying to perpetrate an insurance
fraud, but were released when their story was verified. It seems that a
Russian transport plane carrying stolen cattle was flying overhead. When
the movement of the herd within the plane threw it off balance, the
plane's crew, to avoid crashing, opened the loading bay at the tail of
the aircraft and drove them out to fall into the water below. True story
or hoax? One investigation traced the story back to a Russian television
comedy series.

Personally, I think the story is the most preposterous.... Wait a
minute... I think I just saw something large and black and white fall
past my window. Is that mooing I hear?
Received on Wed 08 Mar 2006 12:47:59 PM PST