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Animal Falls: Falls Or Rains Of Animals (Frogs, Fish, Etc.)

Well at least somebody at the met office is admitting it DOES happen, these days.
 
Rain of Crabs

Source
A real nip in the air in Dartford
A KEEN gardener got the shock of her life when a freak storm rained 20 crabs down on her.

Kate Walker was picking beans in her garden when she felt what she thought was heavy rain hitting her.

But the 33-year-old got a fright when she looked up and saw the brown coloured creatures falling from the sky.

Miss Walker, of Powder Mill Lane, Dartford, collected 19 of the crabs and put them in her neighbour's pond.

The 20th crab died and she is currently keeping it under a pot to show disbelieving friends.

She said: "They think I'm mad, I thought it was something out of the X-Files. The crabs were covered in sand.

"Where have they come from? I've heard of fish falling from the sky but this is ridiculous.'' Miss Walker, who is currently unemployed, lives next to Brooklands Lake and speculates the crabs could have come from there or the Thames, which is about two-and-a-half miles away.

She said: "The lake is a possibility. They could have also come from the salty end of the Thames.'' Fish and frogs falling from the sky are not common occurrences but have been reported many times around the world.

It happens when a mini-tornado passes over water and sweeps up objects of all shapes and sizes.

If the item is lightweight, like a fish or a small frog, it may be caught in a strong storm or a cloud updraft for a long time rising higher until it is thrown out like a hailstone.

Met Office spokesman Barry Gormett said: "It can happen because of the dynamics of the atmosphere.

"When there is a convective motion of air beneath a cloud, it can draw things upwards. I've heard of fish and frogs but crabs are a first.''

Falling from the heavens

In 1995, Nellie Straw of Sheffield was driving through Scotland in a storm when hundreds of frogs suddenly pelted her car.

In 1881, a thunderstorm in Worcester brought down tons of periwinkles and hermit crabs.

In 1890, bird's blood rained down on Messignadi in Calabria, Italy.

From about 1982 to 1986, kernels of corn rained down on several houses in Evans, Colorado. Oddly, there were no cornfields in the area.

In 1877, several 1ft-long alligators fell on J L Smith's farm in South Carolina.

In November, 1996, a town in southern Tasmania was slimed. 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 which fell from the sky.

In a town in Guatemala, money, blue rain, frogs and toads, fish, gold, cigarettes and Star Wars figures have on occasions rained from the sky.

A poor village in Mexico was showered with gold. Supposedly, a treasure chest from a ship sunk off the nearby coast was whipped up by a tornado and deposited on the village.
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Nasty!:eek:

Should think that would hurt more than a frog...
 
Mystery of fish found in field

A blue fish mysteriously turned up in the middle of a field behind Morrisons supermarket in Scarborough.
The turquoise fish with black spots and sharp spikes – known as a lumpfish – was found alive in a puddle in the field at Cayton Carr House Farm on Wednesday.

Niki Slight, 19, keeps horses on the farm and was approached by the farmer, who had picked up the exotic species while ploughing the field.

Miss Slight, who works in Falsgrave Pet Stores in Scarborough, brought the fish to the shop and put it in fresh water but it later died.

Lumpfish females can be used to produce cheap caviar and are native to the French coast. They normally live in waters 1,000ft deep but once a year the species come to England to mate in shallow water.

Manager of Falsgrave Pet Stores, Susan White, said: "It must be a baby because it was only 7in long and adults grow to 23in. It is an extremely strange looking fish – it's definitely not an everyday Scarborough fish."

Miss Slight said: "It looks like something you would see on a BBC2 nature programme, but I think it's quite cute looking."

It remains a mystery how the fish ended up in the middle of a field six miles from the sea.

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05 November 2004
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http://www.scarboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=800&ArticleID=883757
 
Dogs defy Beachy Head fall

Hi

source:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1352754,00.html

quote:
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Dogs defy Beachy Head fall

Press Association
Wednesday November 17, 2004
The Guardian

Two dogs survived an apparent 500ft (150 metre) fall over the edge of a cliff, coastguards said yesterday.

They were found virtually uninjured, swimming at the bottom of the notorious suicide point at Beachy Head, in Eastbourne, East Sussex, according to a Dover Coastguard spokesman.

Mossi, a five-year-old black labrador, and Jack, a two-year-old Lakeland terrier, disappeared from their home in the town the previous day.

A coastguard team climbed down the cliff at Cow Gap and rescued the animals.

Barry Woodward, of Dover Coastguard, said: "Someone phoned in to say a dog had gone over the cliff and could we help. We said if it's gone over the cliff it's dead.

"Then we got another call from someone who said he could see a dog swimming off Beachy Head and he looked very tired."

------------------

Endquote

Mal F
 
Hmm, these are a bit bigger than Forts fish or Frogs. Maybe the animals get bigger over time? One day it might be hippos!
 
In a letter to the Inverness Courier:

Falling fish and mutilated place-names

2 Boyd Terrace, Uig by Portree, Isle of Skye.

Sir, When I was growing up in the thirties, I used to wonder why the name "Culccabock Inn" was inscribed on the gable of the building but everyone called it "The Fluke". I asked my Dad about it. He had been a regular soldier and brought up the older members of our family at Cameron Barracks (near the Inn). His story was that it was called "The Fluke" by older generations as, it was said, a shower of "Fluke" (little flounders) had fallen from the sky onto the Inn and environs.

Later on, my elder sister saw a fall of herring when holidaying on the Isle of Lewis with our grandparents and I have read that, as far back as Pliny, people have been recording such phenomena; and in August I read about such a shower of fish falling in Wales. It seems that the fish and spawn could be swept up in a storm and then dropped in other parts.

Some years ago, there was a letter in your paper, suggesting the Inn was so called as the Nairn and Ardersier fisherwomen rested their baskets near the Inn on their way into Inverness.

I would imagine that the fisherwomen would have entered the town via the area of the old Nairn road probably near the Toll House and into Millburn.

Incidentally, I remember the fisherwomen, wearing their striped petticoats and carrying baskets, used to sell Nairn "speldings" but I cannot remember what a spelding was. Can anyone tell me, as I have never heard the name since I left home?

I look forward to Roddy MacLean's book on Gaelic place-names as they have become so corrupted by people (Ordnance Survey etc. ) trying to make the names pronounceable to English speakers. I have read articles by Irish people who complain about the corruption of their place names such as "Vinegar Hill" for "Fidh na geaer" (The wood of the berries) and "Phoenix Park" for "fionn uisge" (Clear water). In Inverness we have "Diriebught" for "Tir nam bochd" (Land of the Poor).

Yours etc. , Chris Morrison.

14/12/2004
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I've probably posted this elsewhere already but a few years ago I parked my car in my local city centre and when I returned I found a dead rat on the bonnet and another one on the ground next to the car.

No idea how they got there although it was parked in one of the local student areas so maybe it was an amusing prank by someone.
 
Last Updated : Dec 21, 2004


Mystery fish splashes out and hits the road


There have been some fishy goings-on in a Shropshire town after a dog walker rescued a fish she found lying in the middle of a road - despite it being some distance from the nearest stretch of water.

Marian Ralphs, of Ellesmere, initially thought that the perch - weighing about 1lb - was perhaps a plastic bottle or something similar, but on closer inspection found it really was a fish out of water.

Her dog Gertie resisted the temptation to gobble the fish up after it started flapping about on the pavement near Birch Road.

Quick-thinking Mrs Ralphs picked up the fish in a spare poop-scoop bag and then rushed it to her home in Wharf Road for a life-saving dip in a bowl.

The 12in perch has now been released into the wild having made a full recovery, but Mrs Ralphs is baffled how it ended up where it did. She thought a heron might be to blame - but other suggestions have included freak weather including water spouts.

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The full version of this story appears
in tonight's Shropshire Star
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Source
 
Dog survives 70ft cliff plunge

Greets

Dog survives 70ft cliff plunge

A dog survived a 70ft fall from a cliff then swam a mile to safety across a busy shipping lane.

David and Sandra Lee were horrified when their six-month-old Jack Russell terrier disappeared over a wall.

The pet had been startled by gunfire at an exercise at a Royal Marines base at Plymouth, Devon reports The Sun.

Toby survived the fall into the sea at Devil's Point but risked being swept away by the strong tides and currents. He started doggy-paddling and set off for the other side of Plymouth Sound.

Council workers spotted Toby and told David who dialled 999. MoD police were alerted and five officers scrambled to save him in a police launch and rigid inflatable boat.

But by the time they reached him the dog had made it to a rock a mile from where he fell in at Raveness Point in Cornwall.

David, 44, a dockyard welder, said: "Toby must have thought he was just jumping a wall - he didn't realise there was a 70ft drop on the other side. We honestly thought we'd find him dead but some council workers told us that he'd been swept out to sea by the current."

He added: "He escaped without a scratch and is fine. I wouldn't have believed it. I am full of praise for the MoD lads. The current was very strong and he was weak and cold."

MoD police inspector Bert Tonks said: "We are always pleased to be able to help people like this - the crew should be applauded for the quickness of their response."
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http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1269334.html

(Bert Tonks deserves a nomination for "name of the week"!)

mal
 
Not so little plucked chicken falls from the sky

Crashing chooks ruffle residents' feathers
There are two reports of houses being damaged by plucked chickens crashing through their roofs in Newcastle in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

Warrick Slee says when he and his family returned to their Fletcher home on Sunday after a weekend away, they found a smelly house and eventually located a rotting animal corpse in the ceiling.

Last month, another resident of the same suburb reported a plucked chicken had crashed through the roof of his home.

Mr Slee says he did not believe it at first, but now he is not so sure.

"I think you know there's something unusual going on," he said.

"I don't have all the answers or anything like that, but birds or chickens or whatever it is, they don't just fall from the sky and put holes in people's roofs.

"And even if it is something natural that's fair enough, but if there's some funny business going on then the police need to know about it because where this actually hit the house is actually not too far away from the swing set that my kids play on."
Last Update: Wednesday, February 9, 2005. 12:13pm (AEDT)http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1299042.htm
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Hmm...
Suspect 'funny business' but you never know
:?
 
CRASHING CHICKENS MYSTERY

9.2.2005. 19:49:24

Residents in the New South Wales city of Newcastle, have been left mystified after dead chickens crashed through their roofs, damaging their homes.

One man found a dead bird in his ceiling cavity, and the stench of a dead animal throughout his house, after returning from a weekend away with his family.

"Originally we thought we'd left something in the bin and we did some more investigating," said Warrick Slee, 28, from suburb of Fletcher.

"Eventually we noticed a hole in the roof and there was one missing tile and two broken tiles next to it.

"I got up into the ceiling cavity and there was some kind of dead thing with flies buzzing around it and roof tiles amongst it."

While the carcass was very decayed, with no head or legs, Mr Slee identified it as a chicken.

But he has no idea how the animal crashed into his house.

"I don't have all the answers or anything like that, but birds or chickens or whatever it is, they don't just fall from the sky and put holes in people's roofs," he told ABC radio.

It was the second report of a chicken going through the roof of a house in the same neighbourhood.

Local police revealed a similar incident of malicious damage by chicken at a different address in Fletcher.

Lara Riley, 34, arrived home the previous day to find cracked roof tiles and a fresh chicken splattered at the side of her home.

"It was a fresh chicken, half cooked after yesterday's heat," she said.

"One theory here, because it's all discussion in Fletcher, is that it's birds at the dump nearby.

"Maybe a bird or something is picking them up at the dump and dropping them because they're too heavy as they fly over."

Police were alerted to the incident in case there was a more sinister explanation, said Ms Riley.

"It would have to be dropped from a fair height to smash through a roof," she said.
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Source

Chickens falling from the sky

Frances O'Shea
10feb05

THE sky is falling, said Chicken Little. And now chickens are falling from the sky.

Twice in the past six weeks plucked chooks have plummeted on to two roofs at Fletcher, in Newcastle, NSW.

Both times, tiles were smashed, suggesting the birds had fallen from a great height.

Police have been called and the search is on for an answer to the strange phenomenon.

One theory is that someone is using a giant slingshot to launch the probably frozen birds into the air.

After the first chicken fell on to the roof of Stephen Leung on January 2, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority thought it may have fallen from an external luggage locker on a light plane.

That theory now seems less likely after a second chook came crashing on to Warwick Slee's house sometime during the weekend. Mr Slee lives less than 1km from Mr Leung.

The Slee family were away last week and returned home on Sunday afternoon to a foul smell.

Mr Slee was trying to find the source of the smell when he noticed three smashed tiles on his roof.

He climbed into the roof cavity and found the remains of a chicken.

"It was a bit of a shock," Mr Slee, 28, said. "You don't expect a chook to come flying through your roof."

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson described the incidents as "just too odd".
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Source

Fowl play

By FRANCES O'SHEA

February 10, 2005

CHICKENS are falling from the sky over a city suburb – and nobody knows why – or where they come from.

Twice in the past six weeks plucked and probably frozen chooks have plummeted to Earth on to the roofs of two unsuspecting residents of Fletcher, in Newcastle.

On both occasions tiles have been smashed, leading experts to assume the birds fell from a great height.

Police have been called and the search is on for an answer to the strange phenomenon.

One theory is that someone is using a giant slingshot to launch the birds into the air.

After the first chicken fell with a thud on to the roof of Stephen Leung's house on January 2, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority thought it may of fallen from a plane.

The force with which the the bird hit the roof convinced experts it would have plummeted from at least 500m.

The obvious culprit was a low-flying light plane where it may have fallen from an external luggage locker.

That theory now seems less likely after a second chook came crashing on to Warwick Slee's house sometime over the weekend. Mr Slee lives less than a kilometre from Mr Leung.

The Slee family were away last week and returned home late on Sunday afternoon to be greeted by a foul smell.

Mr Slee was trying to find the source of the stench when he noticed three smashed roof tiles.

He climbed into the roof cavity and found the decaying remains of a chicken.

"I'd heard about the other chook hitting a house a few weeks ago but didn't give it much thought," Mr Slee said. "I'd be really interested to know where they are coming from."

Peter Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority described the incidents as "odd".

Mr Gibson said the odds of the chickens falling from a plane twice in the same area were extremely remote.

"There is a chance it could have happened once, but twice I'd say is impossible," he said.

"I think some ground-based explanation is more logical."

Professor John O'Connor, head of mathematics and physical sciences at the University of Newcastle, agreed it was more likely the chooks were being propelled from the ground.

"I can't think of any normal phenomenon that would be responsible," he said.

"It's been known to rain fish, frogs and even chickens but that is after they are sucked up by a cyclone or tornado.

"I think some bright sparks have come up with a method of propelling these chooks.

"They seem to be firing frozen chooks into the air to see how high they can go."

Professor O'Connor said the culprits wouldn't need anything too sophisticated – a large slingshot could propel them hundreds of metres into the air.
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Source
 
Falling Chickens

This is topical for the Year of the Rooster. See FT Home page.

Next year it will be raining Cats and Dogs no doubt.
 
Dog survives 150ft fall

Greets

Dog survives 150ft fall

A dog has survived after fall 150 feet off a cliff.

English setter Hugo sparked a rescue operation involving a vet, coastguards and a lifeboat.

Hugo only suffered a cut tongue after falling down the drop to the beach below reports The Sun.

Vet Karen Kempston - who abseiled down the cliff to get Hugo - said: "He must be the luckiest dog alive."

Karen was altered by Hugo's owners Trevor and Jenny Hordan after falling over the edge at Gristhorpe, North Yorkshire, while chasing a seagull.

She was joined by local coastguard who helped sedate him until a lifeboat arrived.

Jenny, 66, from Seamar near Scarborough said: "I've no idea how he survived. But he is back to his normal self."
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http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1279434.html

mal
 
Anyway the chooks keep getting chucked:

Another strike by flying chook

February 11, 2005

THE mystery of the flying fowl in Fletcher has left everyone guessing.

The residential suburb in Newcastle's west has copped its third airborne chicken, and the puzzle is no closer to being solved.

The latest victim, Lara Riley, arrived home on Tuesday to find cracked roof tiles and chicken remains across the side of her house.

"The cat found it first and he was pretty excited about it," Mrs Riley said. "But I really have no idea where it has come from."

She said raining chickens had become a hot topic of conversation in the community.

Locals Mick Thirkell and John Kennedy were keen to report on the latest theories.

"The rumour is they are coming from a local supermarket who are dumping the stale ones at the tip. Birds then pick them up and drop them over Fletcher on the way back to the wetlands," Mr Thirkell said.

But Mark Johnson, site manager for the Summerhill tip, said no birdlife scouring the tip would be able to hold a whole chicken.

"We have a few crows and that sort of thing, but nothing capable of picking up a frozen chicken," he said.

Newcastle police said it was unlikely that a massive slingshot or cannon device was being used, and a more natural theory such as birds was more feasible.

"At this stage it's a complete mystery," a police spokesman said.
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Re: Rain of Crabs

Keyser Soze said:
Source
In a town in Guatemala, money, blue rain, frogs and toads, fish, gold, cigarettes and Star Wars figures have on occasions rained from the sky.
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I was just reading through this thread...anybody ever heard of this place or know anything about it? In the grand tradition of things, the really weird stuff was put at the very end of a story with no reference given of even a general nature. Like the name of the town. :?
 
Its raining shrimp

A Fortean classic

It's raining shrimp? Get sauce

UNION-TRIBUNE
May 10, 2005

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." That's the name of a children's book about the strange town of Chewandswallow where it rains soup and snows mashed potatoes. All the town's food is delivered by the weather.

Up on Mount Soledad, Janet Andrews is reporting it rained shrimp on April 28. She and others found masses of baby shrimp on the tennis courts of the Summit residential development.

"They're not crazy," says Bob Burhans, curator of the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "I haven't heard of it raining shrimp, but I have heard of it raining fish." About 15 years ago, a Chula Vista man reported that hundreds of minnows had dropped out of the sky onto his driveway, yard and roof. A marine biologist at Scripps identified the airborne fish and theorized they were from the Sweetwater Reservoir.

The most likely delivery system: a wind funnel that formed over the water, picking up surface creatures and then dropping its load as it dissipated.

So it probably went for the shrimp. When the weather gets rough, juvenile shrimp at the ocean surface tend to gather in large numbers in the shallows, Burhans explains.

"There were warnings of potential sea spouts a couple of hours before that storm came in," says Burhans, adding that a sea spout can travel a mile or two, or even farther.

"If I hadn't heard about the minnows," Burhans says, "I might have thought these people were crazy."
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>Source<
 
It's raining frogs in Serbia
07/06/2005 15:04 - (SA)

Belgrade - Thousands of tiny frogs rained on a town in northwestern Serbia, Belgrade daily Blic reported on Tuesday.

Strong winds brought storm clouds over Odzaci, 120km north-west of Belgrade, on Sunday afternoon, but instead of rain, down came the tiny amphibians, witnesses said.

"I saw countless frogs fall from the sky," said Odzaci resident Aleksandar Ciric.

The frogs, different from those usually seen in the area, survived the fall and hopped around in search of water.

Belgrade climatologist Slavisa Ignjatovic described the phenomenon as "not very unusual".

"A wind resembling a tornado can suck in anything light enough from the surface or shallow water. Usually it is just dust, but sometimes also larger objects," Ignjatovic told Blic. - Sapa-dpa
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Source

A bit sketchy, but I do love the classics
 
Serbian frog fall

Frogs rain down on Serbia

Traffic came to a halt and locals fled inside after thousands of frogs fell from the sky onto a Serbian village.

Residents in Odzaci told local daily Blic they thought the world was coming to an end. Aleksandar Ciric said: "I saw all these small frogs just start raining down. There were thousands of them."

Another villager, Caja Jovanovic, added: "This huge 'cloud' seemed to come out of nowhere and its shape and colour looked very strange. We were all wondering what it was when suddenly frogs started to fall from the sky. I thought maybe a plane carrying frogs had exploded in midair."

But climatology expert Slavisa Ignjatovic said there was a simple scientific explanation for the incident. He said: "A whirlwind has sucked up the frogs from a lake, the sea or some other body of water somewhere else and carried them along to Odzaci where they have fallen to the ground. It is a recognised scientific phenomenon."
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[http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1421070.html?menu=news.quirkies]

I'm always very glad when frog falls are reported, since they are perhaps the perennial Fortean phenomena: I particularly liked the suggestion by a vilager that "maybe a plane carrying frogs had exploded midair" - why would someone transport frogs by air? why no explosion? no debris (aside from its amphibian cargo)? And the traditional scientific explanation - "A whirlwind had sucked up the frogs from a lake" - yet no pondweed, newts, sediment, etc., and only little frogs - and what about the odd cloud seen?

Ian
 
Monday, May 15, 2006
BILL MONROE
The Oregonian

Fish fall from sky, land on track meet

A different kind of April shower hit Astoria High School during a track meet last month.

The home team may not have been as surprised as the visitors when fish began falling from the sky.

Rick Klumph, acting northwest regional manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Friday at its monthly meeting in Burns that the meet's javelin competition was briefly interrupted by 7- to 8-inch coho salmon smolts falling onto the field.

The high school is on the Youngs Bay shoreline, where several hundred thousand hatchery coho had just been planted in the bay. They'll be next year's returning salmon for Buoy 10 sport and Youngs Bay commercial fishing.

The track also is located directly under the path of Caspian terns, which hunt the smolts to feed to their young.

A combination that day of the large size of the smolts, harassment of the terns by larger gulls and the terns' practice of handing catches off to their mates, caused the hapless baby salmon to drop on the track below.

Klumph said the tern colony has been successfully relocated to another area of the lower Columbia where they don't take as many salmon smolts.

Their annual take of more than 12 million smolts several years ago has been reduced by about three quarters. In 2005, it was estimated at 3.4 million.

Diamond Lake stocking: The ice is gone from Diamond Lake, trout stocking has begun, and at least one boat ramp (near Diamond Lake Resort) is usable despite receding water levels.

Rick Rockholt, marketing director for the resort, said temporary docks are being installed to bridge access for boaters across the newly expanded shoreline. Campers planning Memorial Day outings should find the lake ready, he said.

Diamond Lake is being drawn down eight feet in preparation for chemical treatment in September to rid it of unwanted tui chubs. The water will be poisoned with rotenone, a naturally occurring substance derived from a plant that suffocates fish but doesn't harm humans or other wildlife.

Lake levels are about seven feet lower than usual.

Dave Loomis of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife regional office in Roseburg said the first of 20,000 catchable trout were to be planted in the lake Friday, with the remainder to come this week or next.

However, Loomis said, anglers who couldn't wait caught 14- to 16-inch trout before the stocking began.

Another 4,000 trout will be stocked before Free Fishing Weekend, June 10-11.

The lake should offer good fishing all summer, Loomis said.

To avoid wasting trout during the September poisoning, the daily and possession bag limits have been expanded to allow as many as possible be taken home.

Anglers may keep up to 20 trout per day without size limits and can take home a possession limit of 40.

Fishing will close Sept. 5.

Wasting clams: Clatsop Beach razor clam diggers may be digging themselves into a legal hole.

The incidence of dead, dying and wasted clams has doubled this spring on the popular beach, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Biologists recently re-dug 205 holes left by diggers and discovered dead, damaged or reburied clams in 39 of them. More than 80 percent of the discarded clams had damaged shells.

Even those that appear healthy typically die from the stress of being reburied without doing it themselves, said Matthew Hunter, the department's shellfish project leader.

Diggers are required to keep the first 15 clams they find, regardless of condition.

In most months, Hunter said, wastage is only 10 percent. It increases in the spring and summer, however, as young clams become the dominant occupants of surfline holes.

Oregon State Police fish and wildlife enforcement troopers carefully watch razor clamming during peak minus tides (most of this week and beginning again May 24).

All diggers, even small children, must dig their own clams, carry their own container and possess only their own limits. Those 14 and older need a shellfish license.

At least some of the wastage can be largely avoided by digging only in larger holes. Hole size typically indicates the age and size of the clam.

Clatsop County beaches are open to clamming through mid-July, then close until the end of September. Other Oregon beaches remain open as long as there's no health advisory in effect.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has cleared beach digging for razor clams south from the Columbia River to the north jetty of the Siuslaw River near Florence.

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©2006 The Oregonian
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It will rain fish 'n frogs

By JOHN TROUP

BRITAIN is set for a summer downpour of FROGS and FISH, scientists said yesterday.

Recent changeable weather conditions such as storms, droughts and sudden downpours have vastly increased the chance of objects falling from the sky.

Experts say the most likely spot for a BFO — “bizarre falling object” — is the Norfolk resort of Great Yarmouth.

The phenomenon is highlighted in a British Weather Services report.

Past recorded BFOs include jellyfish, frogs, crabs, fish and coal.

BWS senior meteorologist Jim Dale said the phenomenon can be caused by heat and air pressure coupled with atmospheric instability.

He said: “Converging cold air off the North Sea and warm air off the land make for the necessary conditions.”

Other BFO hotspots include east Manchester and Ipswich.
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www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006230333,00.html

Forecast warns of shower of frogs

22 May 2006 06:05

This may be the summer of drought - but instead of rain over the next few months people in Yarmouth have been told to brace themselves for a downpour of … frogs.

That is the unusual conclusion of a senior weather forecaster who has labelled the resort as the most likely spot for a downpour of BFOs - bizarre falling objects.

The town was showered in two-inch sprats in August 2000 while other BFO outbreaks recorded around the country in previous centuries include larger fish, tomatoes and even coal.

Recent changeable weather conditions such as storms, droughts and sudden downpours have vastly increased the chances of objects falling from the sky, according to Jim Dale, of British Weather Services, who says they can be caused by heat and air pressure coupled with atmospheric instability.

He has been studying BFOs for a new report and has concluded that outbreaks could occur in east Manchester, Ipswich - but are most likely in Yarmouth.

He told the EDP: “People may be surprised to hear this happens but while it might be unusual it really does.

“We've spent some time looking into where this phenomenon could occur and homed in on the east and south east, before finally settling on Yarmouth.

“You need converging air, warm land mass, instances of lightning and thunderstorms and chances of tornadoes - and Yarmouth has that all more than anywhere else in Europe.”

Tornados created from thunderstorms can whisk up objects in their path, such as fish from the sea, frogs from a pond or tomatoes from a field, carry them along in clouds and dump them up to two miles away.

Mr Dale said: “With this week being as unusual as it's going to be all summer in terms of changing weather patterns, it's a great recipe for things being sucked up and then deposited.”

The claim was yesterday met with scepticism in the town - but officials said it was best to be safe than sorry.

Bert Collins, chairman of Yarmouth Tourism Authority, said: “It seems remarkable to me. There's something slightly fishy about this.

“It would be unique - though I'm not sure our famous Mile would be so golden if it was covered in frogs.”

John Hemsworth, head of Yarmouth environmental health, added: “Yarmouth is always open to new experiences but as it's a natural phenomenon there's not a lot we can do to plan for it - save to remind people to bring an extra-strong umbrella!”
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Source
 
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It's raining fish in the Northern Territory - report
February 28, 2010

"WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has reportedly had fish falling from the sky.

The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine, The Northern Territory News reports.

Christine Balmer, who took the photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, said she had to pinch herself when she was told "hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.

"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said,
"They fell from the sky everywhere. "Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere."These fish were alive when they hit the ground."
Mrs Balmer, the aged care co-ordinator at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event.
"I haven't lost my marbles," she said, reassuring herself.
"Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles.""


More (with pics, links):
http://www.news.com.au/national/its-rai ... 5835295781
 
Great, we haven't had a good fish fall in ages it seems. I notice from the link that they're putting forward the old scooped up by a tornado over the sea theory, while admitting they haven't heard of one recently.
 
"Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles."

:lol:


What I'd like to know is what species they are and where they are normally found - why is there nothing in the report about that?
 
NT News

According to the NT News they are believed to be spangled perch, very common throughout the northern part of Australia.
 
Thanks for that - this would mean they didn't have to travel very far making a local weather event more likely.

Except there apparently was no local weather that could have caused this - or was there? Maybe it was a very small local event that caused this?

Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region.

He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the phenomena to occur - but no tornados have been reported to the authority.
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There is still the matter of why it's only ever one type of fish, though. Fort mentioned this as his biggest problem with the whirlwind theory. Personally, I have a bigger problem with a Sargasso Sea of the sky, but it is still odd that falls tend to be of one species.

I bet they wish it had been barramundi, though.
 
Full story (and photo):
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-centra ... -crawlies/

Pupils at a Scots school had to run for cover when it started raining worms during their PE lesson.

Teacher David Crichton was leading a group of pupils playing football on an astroturf pitch at Galashiels Academy when dozens of the slimy creatures began plummeting from the sky.

The second-year boys had to abandon their lesson as the earthworms fell during the bizarre incident.

David said the children had just completed their warm up when they began to hear "soft thudding" on the ground. The class then looked to the cloudless sky and saw worms falling on to them.

The 26-year-old teacher said he was baffled by the unexplained incident. Later he and other teachers found more worms spread across a tennis court almost 100 yards away.

David said: "We went out to one of our outdoor areas - an all weather astroturf pitch.

"We were out playing football and had just done our warm up and were about to start the next part of the lesson. We started hearing this wee thudding noise on the ground. There were about 20 worms already on the ground at this point.

"Then they just kept coming down. The kids were laughing but some were covering their heads and others were running for cover for a while. They just scattered to get out of the way."

The bizarre occurrence took place at around 9.15am on Tuesday. The teacher then scooped up handfuls of the worms as proof they had landed on his class...
Click to expand...

Worm falls are a new one on me, I must admit. Will the waterspout theory hold up in this one?
 
Pupils at a Scots school had to run for cover when it started raining worms during their PE lesson.

Teacher David Crichton was leading a group of pupils playing football on an astroturf pitch at Galashiels Academy when dozens of the slimy creatures began plummeting from the sky.
Click to expand...
Fascinating! It would be good to know if they really were earthworms (which have no business being up in the sky) or some other worm-like species.

If they were earthworms, it's ironic they landed on astroturf:
"OK guys, head for that green grass down there, we'll soon be happily underground again!"
 
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