Rain of animals#Fish

Rain of flightless animals and things has been reported throughout history. In the first century AD, Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder documented storms of frogs and fish.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3582802.stm|title=How can it rain fish?|date=August 20, 2004|via=news.bbc.co.uk}} In 1794, French soldiers saw toads fall from the sky during heavy rain at Lalain, near the French city of Lille.{{cite web|last1=Hasler|first1=Joe|title=Weird Stories of Objects Falling From the Sky - Explained|url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a4525/4331114/|website=www.popularmechanics.com|date=17 September 2009 |access-date=31 October 2017}} Rural inhabitants in Yoro, Honduras claim "fish rain" happens there every summer, a phenomenon they call Lluvia de Peces, although the name may be indoctrination from a Spanish missionary as the fish have only been found near tributaries after storms.{{cite web|author=Rivas, Orsy Campos |title=Lo que la lluvia regala a Yoro (discusses a rain of fishes that occurs annually in Honduras)| url= http://www.elsalvador.com/hablemos/2004/110704/110704-4.htm |date=November 7, 2004|work=Hablemos }}

Image:Tornade003.jpges and waterspouts may lift up animals into the air and deposit them miles away.]]

French physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836) was among the first scientists to take accounts of raining animals. Addressing the Society of Natural Science, Ampère suggested that at times frogs and toads roam the countryside in large numbers, and that violent winds could pick them up and carry them great distances.

After a reported rain of fish in Singapore in 1861, French naturalist Francis de Laporte de Castelnau speculated that a migration of walking catfish had taken place, dragging themselves over land from one puddle to another, following the rain.{{cite book|title=Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences|volume= 52|pages=880–881|date= 1861}}

The likeliest explanation for many of the supposed cases is that there is no falling happening at all and the animals are driven along by winds or a deluge of some sort.{{cite web | last=Nobel | first=Justin | title=When Animals Fall from the Sky | website=Modern Farmer | date=2014-03-18 | url=https://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/things-fall-sky/ | access-date=2019-07-10}} This explanation accounts for the prevalence of reports that just a single species or type of animal raining from the sky. In several occurrences within two weeks of October, 1987, people in three towns of Gloucestershire, England named Stroud, Cirencester, and Cheltenham reported heavy rain fall that also brought down dozens of tiny pink frogs. Some suggested strong winds, waterspouts, or tornados carried the frogs' eggs flying north across Africa, until falling on England.{{cite news|url=https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17154361.remember-pink-frogs-rained-stroud-cirencester/|title=Remember when pink frogs rained down on Stroud and Cirencester?|last=Phadre Watson|first=Sarah|date=2018-10-28|publisher=stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk|access-date=2024-09-24}}

A current scientific hypothesis involves tornadic waterspouts: a tornado that forms over the water.{{Cite web |last=Zielinski |first=Sarah |title=Strange Rain: Why Fish, Frogs and Golf Balls Fall From the Skies |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/strange-rain-why-fish-frogs-and-golf-balls-fall-skies-180956527/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2014-08-19 |title=What is animal rain phenomenon and how is it explained? – Weather Blog |url=https://blog.worldweatheronline.com/weather/animal-rain-phenomenon-explained/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |language=en}} Under this hypothesis, a tornadic waterspout transports animals to relatively high altitudes, carrying them over large distances. This hypothesis appears supported by the type of animals in these rains: small and light, usually aquatic,{{cite news|author=Angwin, Richard | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/weather/raining_cats_dogs.shtml |title=Wiltshire weather |work= BBC|date= July 15, 2003}} and by the suggestion that the rain of animals is often preceded by a storm. However, the theory does not account for how all the animals involved in each individual incident would be from only one species, and not a group of similarly sized animals from a single area.{{Cite web |title=When Animals Rain From The Sky |url=http://scribol.com/science/meteorology/when-animals-rain-from-the-sky/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929091651/http://scribol.com/science/meteorology/when-animals-rain-from-the-sky/ |archive-date=29 September 2019 }} Further, the theory also does not account for a genuine tornadic waterspout not actually sucking objects up and carrying them rather than flinging objects out to the sides.{{Cite web|url=https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4170|title=It's Raining Frogs and Fish|last=Dunning|first=Brian|date=September 8, 2009|website=Skeptoid}}

Image:Bat-supercell encounter NWS.png

In the case of birds, storms may overcome a flock in flight, especially in times of migration. The Doppler image to the right shows an example wherein a group of bats is overtaken by a thunderstorm.{{cite web|url=http://www.spc.noaa.gov/coolimg/batrad/index.html |title=Bat-eating Supercell|website= National Weather Service|date=March 19, 2006}} In the image, the bats are in the red zone, which corresponds to winds moving away from the radar station, and enter into a mesocyclone associated with a tornado (in green). These events may occur easily with birds, which can get killed in flight, or stunned and then fall (unlike flightless creatures, which first have to be lifted into the air by an outside force). Sometimes this happens in large groups, for instance, the blackbirds falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, United States, on December 31, 2010.{{cite news| title= More than 1,000 blackbirds fall out of Arkansas sky |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12105157|publisher = BBC News| date=2 January 2011|access-date = 2 January 2011}} It is common for birds to become disoriented (for example, because of bad weather or fireworks) and collide with objects such as trees or buildings, killing them or stunning them into falling to their death. The number of blackbirds killed in Beebe is not spectacular considering the size of their congregations, which can be in the millions.{{cite news|title=Why Are Birds Falling From the Sky?|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110106-birds-falling-from-sky-bird-deaths-arkansas-science/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718041117/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110106-birds-falling-from-sky-bird-deaths-arkansas-science/|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 July 2012|publisher = National Geographic|date = 6 January 2011|access-date = 6 January 2011}} The event in Beebe, however, captured the imagination and led to more reports in the media of birds falling from the sky across the globe, such as in Sweden and Italy,{{cite news|title = Now It's Dead Doves Falling From Sky in Italy|url = http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/07/now-its-dead-doves-falling-from-sky-in-italy/|publisher = "AOL"|date = 7 January 2011|access-date = 7 January 2011|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110109202216/http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/07/now-its-dead-doves-falling-from-sky-in-italy/|archive-date = 9 January 2011}} though many scientists claim such mass deaths are common occurrences but usually go unnoticed.{{cite news|title=Fact Check: Mass bird, fish deaths occur regularly|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUMR9hgvvvjAem8_8-v5V9Ow-nug?docId=eb2eb78242fe4290a414e0644cda18a6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110042344/http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUMR9hgvvvjAem8_8-v5V9Ow-nug?docId=eb2eb78242fe4290a414e0644cda18a6|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 January 2011|publisher= "Associated Press"|date= 7 January 2011|access-date = 7 January 2011}} In contrast, it is harder to find a plausible explanation for rains of terrestrial animals.

Some cases are thought to be caused by birds dropping fish. With regard to a documented rain of fish that occurred on December 29, 2021 in Texarkana, Texas. Several residents of a landlocked city, in east Texas have reported a rare sight seeing fish all over the ground after they apparently fell from the sky during a rainstorm. Independent researchers, Sharon A. Hill and Paul Cropper, proposed that the fish had been dropped or possibly regurgitated by passing birds.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-22 |title=Researchers figured out why fish fell from the sky in Texarkana, and it's pretty gross |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2022/06/22/scientists-figured-out-why-fish-fell-from-the-sky-in-texarkana-and-its-pretty-gross/ |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=Dallas News |language=en}} The theory found some favor with airport workers who had cleaned up the fish; they noted that there were birds in the area around the same time, and the fish "were kind of chewed up". In June 2022 around the San Francisco coast, a boom of anchovies is likely to be the cause of fair weather falling of fish from birds' mouths, such as pelicans.{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Sam |date=2022-06-28 |title=Fish are reportedly raining from the sky across San Francisco |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/raining-fish-in-san-francisco-17272717.php |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}}

The following list is a selection of examples.

Image:Gravure de pluie de poissons.jpg

• Singapore, February 22, 1861

{{cite journal| last = McAtee| first = Waldo L.| title = Showers of Organic Matter| journal = Monthly Weather Review| volume = 45| issue = 5| pages = 223| date= May 1917| url = http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/045/mwr-045-05-0217.pdf| access-date = 2009-01-26| doi=10.1175/1520-0493(1917)45<217:soom>2.0.co;2|bibcode = 1917MWRv...45..217M | doi-access = free}}

• Tarai, Nepal, May 15, 1900

"Rained Fish", AP report in the Lowell (Mass.) Sun, May 16, 1900, p4

• Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, July 1, 1903

{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=The Weather Network - Weather forecasts, maps, news and videos |url=http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=The Weather Network |language=en-CA}}

• Marksville, Louisiana, October 23, 1947{{Cite web|url=http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_7880.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210082932/http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_7880.html|url-status=dead|title=Greg Forbes. Spooky Weather. The Weather Channel. Posted: October 27, 2005|archive-date=December 10, 2009}}
• Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, May 19, 1993
• Knighton, Powys, Wales, 18 August 2004{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/features/halloween/raining_fish.shtml|title=BBC - Shropshire - Weird Shropshire - Fish shower|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}
• Kerala State, India, 12 February 2008{{Cite web|url=https://www.financialexpress.com/archive/fish-rain-takes-kerala-villagers-by-surprise/272219/|title=Fish rain takes Kerala villagers by surprise|date=February 14, 2008|website=The Financial Express}}
• Bhanwad, Jamnagar, India, 24 October 2009{{Cite web |date=2009-10-30 |title=Jamnagar News: Fish Rain Near Jamnagar |url=http://jamnagar-news.blogspot.com/2009/10/fish-rain-near-jamnagar.html |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Jamnagar News}}
• Lajamanu, Northern Territory, Australia, 25 and 26 February 2010{{Cite news |title=It's raining fish in the Northern Territory - report |url=http://www.news.com.au/national/its-raining-fish-in-the-northern-territory-report/story-e6frfkvr-1225835295781 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114034313/http://www.news.com.au/national/its-raining-fish-in-the-northern-territory-report/story-e6frfkvr-1225835295781 |archive-date=14 November 2016 |access-date=2024-12-30 |work=NewsComAu |language=en |url-status=live }}
• Loreto, Agusan del Sur, Philippines, 13 January 2012{{cite web

|url=http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/244651/news/nation/it-s-raining-fish-it-s-normal|title=It's raining fish! It's normal|author=Lani Nami Buan|date=January 15, 2012|publisher=GMA News|access-date=January 16, 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2012/01/15/agusan-s-rain-fish-natural-although-unusual-200749|title=Agusan's 'rain of fish' natural although unusual|author=Jereco O. Paloma|date=January 15, 2012|publisher=SunStar Davao|access-date=January 16, 2012|archive-date=26 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826114544/http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2012/01/15/agusan-s-rain-fish-natural-although-unusual-200749|url-status=dead}}

• IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 12 September 2013{{Cite web |date=2009-10-30 |title=Jamnagar News: Fish Rain Near Jamnagar |url=http://jamnagar-news.blogspot.com/2009/10/fish-rain-near-jamnagar.html |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=Jamnagar News}}
• The annual Lluvia de Peces in Yoro, Honduras
• Chilaw, Sri Lanka, 6 May 2014{{Cite news |date=2014-05-06 |title=Fish rain down on Sri Lanka village |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27298939 |access-date=2024-12-30 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
• Nandigama, Andhra Pradesh, India, 19 June 2015{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So3c2GSXYs0 |title=- YouTube |website=YouTube |access-date=19 June 2015 |archive-date=14 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150814013024/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So3c2GSXYs0 |url-status=bot: unknown }}

• Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, 16 August 2015{{Cite news |date=2015-08-17 |title=Villagers wake up to find fish in fields! |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vijayawada/Villagers-wake-up-to-find-fish-in-fields/articleshow/48510366.cms |access-date=2024-12-30 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}
• Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, 20 January 2016"Fish rain in diredawa Ethiopia.", http://mereja.com/news/1080799 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919150919/http://mereja.com/news/1080799 |date=19 September 2018 }}
• Pathapatnam, Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, 19 May 2016{{cite news|title=Fish rain in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh|url=http://telugu.oneindia.com/news/telangana/fish-rain-in-srikakulam-district-177843.html}}, One India Telugu, May 20, 2016
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 September 2016{{cite news|title=Catfish Falls From Sky and Strikes Woman in Face Near Art Museum, Philadelphia|url=https://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160910_Woman_says_catfish_fell_from_sky__striking_her_near_Art_Museum.html}}, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 2016
• Mexico, Tamaulipas, Tampico, 26 September 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2017/09/27/1191115|title=No lo has visto todo aún: llovieron peces en Tampico|date=September 27, 2017|website=Excélsior}}
• Oroville, California, 16 May 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.ktvu.com/news/how-100-fish-rained-down-on-an-oroville-school-remains-a-mystery|title=How 100 fish rained down on an Oroville school remains a mystery|date=June 23, 2017|website=KTVU FOX 2}}
• Jaffna, Sri Lanka, 7 November 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/11/07/fish-rain-falls-on-sri-lankan-village/|title='Fish rain' falls on Sri Lankan village {{pipe}} The Star|website=www.thestar.com.my|date=7 November 2017 }}
• Texarkana, Texas, 30 December 2021.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kwtx.com/2021/12/30/fish-fall-sky-during-rainstorm-eastern-texas/|title=Fish fall from the sky during rainstorm in eastern Texas; KWTX|website=www.kwtx.com|date=30 December 2021}}

• Albury, Australia, 1974
• Santo Antônio da Platina, Brazil, February 3, 2013{{cite news |title=Designer registra 'chuva de aranhas' em cidade do interior do Paraná |url=http://g1.globo.com/parana/noticia/2013/02/designer-registra-chuva-de-aranhas-em-cidade-do-interior-do-parana.html |publisher=Globo.com |date=8 February 2013 |access-date=9 February 2013}}
• Goulburn, Australia, 15 May 2015{{Cite web |date=2015-05-18 |title=It's Raining Spiders In Australia And They're Getting Stuck In People's Beards |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/18/spiders-rain-australian-town-goulburn_n_7305192.html |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}}

• Stroud, Cirencester, and Cheltenham, three towns of Gloucestershire, England, 24 October 1987 (several occurrences within two weeks)

• Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, June 2009 (occurrences reported throughout the month){{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5491846/Sky-rains-tadpoles-over-Japan.html|title=Sky 'rains tadpoles' over Japan |last=Demetriou|first=Danielle|date=2009-06-10|publisher=Telegraph.co.uk|access-date=2009-08-07}}
• Rákóczifalva, Hungary, 18–20 June 2010 (twice){{cite news|url=http://szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szolnok/bulvar/szemtanuk-szerint-bekaeso-hullott-a-telepulesre-312385|title=Szemtanúk szerint békaeső hullott a településre|date=2010-06-21|publisher=szoljon.hu|access-date=2010-06-21}}
• Cabo Polonio, Uruguay, Since 2011 (twice){{cite news|url=http://ntd.la/como-fue-que-vivi-una-lluvia-de-ranas-y-sapos/ |title=Cómo fue que viví una lluvia de ranas y sapos |trans-title=How it was that I experienced a rain of frogs and toads |language=es |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404222205/http://ntd.la/como-fue-que-vivi-una-lluvia-de-ranas-y-sapos/|archive-date=2017-04-04}}

• Jellyfish: Bath, England, 1894{{cite book|last=Fort|first=Charles|title=The Book of the Damned|publisher=sacred-texts.com|year=1919|page=48|chapter=Ch. 4|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/fort/damn/damn04.htm}}
• Worms: Jennings, Louisiana, 11 July 2007{{cite news |title=Worms Fall from the Sky in Jennings |url=http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6771977 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714143408/http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6771977 |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 July 2007 |publisher= WAFB Channel 9|date=7 July 2007 |access-date=12 December 2008}}
• Various marine animals, including octopuses, seashells and starfish: Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, 13 June 2018{{cite news |title=青岛下"海鲜"？真实情况并不好笑|publisher=nwang.net/article/1528966769371001/ |date=14 May 2018 }}

{{in popular culture|section|date=December 2024}}

{{prose|section|date=December 2024}}

• Magnolia
• Sharknado
• Watchmen
• Good Omens (book and in the title sequence of the Amazon Prime video series)
• Fuego gris (also here: at the article's Spanish version).
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean (manga/anime series)
• The Sarah Jane Adventures, series 5, episode 2, "The Curse of Clyde Langer"
• Fargo, season 1
• The X-Files, season 2, episode 14, "Die Hand Die Verletzt"
• KikoRiki, episode 173, "The Generous Sky"

• Blood rain
• Debris fallout
• Flying fish
• Kentucky meat shower
• Lluvia de Peces, (Honduras, "Fish rain")
• Raining cats and dogs
• Red rain in Kerala
• Star jelly

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Bajkov, A.D. Do fish fall from the sky? Science, v. 109, April 22, 1949: 402.
• Bourchier, Daniel. "It's raining fish...no really." Sunday Territorian, Australia, February 28, 2010.
• Branley, Franklyn M. It's raining cats and dogs: all kinds of weather and why we have it. Illustrated by True Kelley. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1987. 112 p. (Juvenile)
• Cerveny, Randall S. Freaks of the storm: from flying cows to stealing thunder, the world's strangest true weather stories. New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, c2006. 371 p.
• Chandler, Barb. Froggy weather. Weather-wise, v. 57, Jan./Feb. 2004: 42.
• Christian, Spencer and Antonia Felix. Can it really rain frogs?: the world's strangest weather events. New York, Wiley, 1997. 121 p. (Juvenile).
• Corliss, William. Tornados, dark days, anomalous precipitation, and related weather phenomena: a catalog of geophysical anomalies. Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, c1983. 196 p.
• Dennis, Jerry. It's raining frogs and fishes: four seasons of natural phenomena and oddities of the sky. New York, HarperCollins, c1992. 323 p.
• Englebert, Phillis. The complete weather resource. Detroit, UXL, c1997–2000. 4 v.
• "Frogs fall from the sky." Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia, June 8, 2005. p. 2.
• Gray, J. E. The shower of fishes. Zoologist; a monthly journal of natural history, v. 17, 1859: 6540–6541
• Gudger, E. W. Do fish fall from the sky with rain? Scientific Monthly, v. 29, December 1929: 523–527.
• McAtee, Waldo L. Showers of organic matter. [https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/45/5/1520-0493_1917_45_217_soom_2_0_co_2.xml Monthly Weather Review, v. 45, May 1917: 217–224].
• Posey, Carl A. The living earth book of wind and weather. Pleasantville, NY, Reader's Digest Association, c1994. 224 p.
• Waterspouts. In McGraw-Hill concise encyclopedia of science and technology. 5th edition. New York, McGraw-Hill, c2005. pp. 2369–2370.

{{Commons category|Raining animals}}

• [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/298100.html Raining cats and dogs]
• [http://www.prairieghosts.com/falls_sky.html Mysterious Falls from the Sky] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108154948/http://www.prairieghosts.com/falls_sky.html |date=8 January 2008 }}. A review on the American perspective.
• [http://www.oddee.com/item_97047.aspx 10 Craziest Things To Fall From the Sky]
• [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fafrotskies Fafrotskies]. (An acronym for falls from the skies)

Category:Anomalous weather

Category:Animals in popular culture

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