Raining animals

I'm not sure if there is already a thread about this, but I was wondering what anyone knows about raining animals. Fish and frogs are the most commonly reported, but sometimes birds too. I found an article on wikipedia that attempts to explain this occurence but I want to know if there are any other theories out there.
en.wikipedia.org...

I guess is there is a strong enough wind storm then yea, it's possible. The fish have to be close to the surface. And same for the frogs. Birds get thrown around in wind storms anyway.

Falcon out...

I have read about small animals getting caught up in e.g. hurricanes and the like just to rain down elsewhere when the ability to keep them aloft dwindles.

but apart from the wiki article I haven't found much except this Q&A:

USA Today
Q: You've probably heard the expression, "it's raining cats and dogs." Has it ever rained animals?

A: Yes, raining animals is a meteorological phenomenon with a scientific explanation. Strong updrafts within tornadoes and waterspouts can capture debris, such as small animals like frogs, fish and birds. The animals are then transported by the wind high into the atmosphere. When they are no longer supported by the updraft, they fall back to Earth. The lighter the animal, the further it can be transported.

Different cultures have ideas of how the expression "it's raining cats and dogs" originated. One of the most common theories is that it stems from 17th-century England, when animals, killed by the bubonic plague, would lie dead in the streets. They would apparently flow down the gutters after a heavy rainstorm.

Learn more about the strength of tornadic winds on this USA TODAY resource page.

IMHO if it is a wind or storm responsible for picking up animals such as fish or frogs, should it not rain them both at the same time as well as birds or mice or whatever else it picked up along the way.Not just hundreds of one kind of fish or frog. Almost as if a passing cloud dumped a breeding program on us.

this is overall an odd subject. i'm not sure what could cause this. atleast this is animals raining, though. there was a post on ats that i saw before that was about human flesh raining from the sky.

Ok raining human flesh, never heard that one before but definetely weird. anyways back to raining animals Access Denied raises a good point would it not rain more than one kind of animal? have to think more on that.

If memory serves me correctly, it rained fish in East Ham-London in 1981, ill try to find some info.
couldnt find it, but apparently it rained sprats (fish) in my hometown! i certainly dont remember it tho!!
Linky Linky


[edit on 24-5-2007 by ParaNana]

Again if the wind is strong enough it can do that. Lets look at tornados for a second. They have the strenght to lift up and carry houses for miles. If they can lift houses they can lift animals. Hurricanes are the exact same way. They can sometimes lift houses, thus have the power to lift and carry animals.


Falcon out...

i've heard stories of it raining fat, blood, flesh, fish, toads, tadpoles frozen in their sacs, and hailstones containing insects and pollen. there has been at least one report of a weird substance being found inside 'ice cubes' that fell from the sky. according to fortean times and a few other ufology mags they say it's unidentifiable. naturally they mark it as extra-terrestrial. whether it is or not doesn't seem important enough to anyone to test, so i guess we'll never get a real answer.
i wish it'd rain something strange here,it'd make great photos!

David2012's quote is the answer. Many meteorologists know this to be true. Nothing supernatural about it.

Originally posted by Batty
i've heard stories of it raining fat, blood, flesh...

Hurricanes are known to pick up large amounts of debris and hurl them thousands of feet. Sometimes, they can even carry them to different locations and drop them. Perhaps a hurricane ran through a medical waste dump and threw the contents into an unlucky town.

Yes, they rain


Hi,

One of the firsts, maybe the first person to register that type of occurrences was Charles Fort. I am a privileged one to have is Complete Books of Charles Fort, a rare edition but available in some bookstores. Dover is a low price but high quality editor.

Or read then online here.

Charles Fort


And thank you for the opportunity to refer with some more detail, about one of my preferred authors!

More references:
. www.oddedge.com...
. www.skepdic.com...
. www.andrew-may.com...

brotherthebig.

as much as fort can be credited with bringing these events into the realm of real consideration, you have to keep in mind the scientific breakthroughs we've made since his day. modern science on the whole is a different kettle of raining fish to what it was when fort was alive.
i agree that hurricanes are most likely the cause of these events, but i do remember hearing a few stories that totally ruined that theory. things were measured i seem to remember. meteorologists said there were no disturbances. yes, there's a damn good chance that this anti-evidence was made up, but on the face of it i'd say the hurricane exp. isn't totally satisfactory.

Wow, brotherthebig you found some excellent info on this topic I appreciate the help. After reading some I,ve decided that, although tornadoes and hurricanes may be responsible for the raining of local species in some instances. It doesn't explain species not found anywere in the area. The one article you posted told of an annual rain of small fish in the Honduras still alive and edible. The fish are not found elsewere in the area. This to me says something else is causing the rain of fish.

Originally posted by Feral Rage
...The one article you posted told of an annual rain of small fish in the Honduras still alive and edible. The fish are not found elsewere in the area. This to me says something else is causing the rain of fish.

Perhpas the fish were manna, food from the heavens. But more likely the fish were picked up in one area and carried to Honduras. The accounts of the fish being alive were probably made up.

Raining living animals

The Singapore case

Hi, ;cool:

Yes, science evolutes a lot since Fort, but the mystery remains. I think tornados or hurricanes natural phenomenon could explain some but not all cases.

In some events the animals are not dead, like the Honduras cyclic raining analysed by National Geographic or the snakes in Memphis.

Google is a good help top find this type of information.

More references:
. www.freewebs.com...
. en.wikipedia.org...
. en.wikipedia.org...
. www.elsalvador.com...
. es.wikipedia.org...

brotherthebig.

I wonder if the fish rain is what is attributed to Jesus making all those fish...

Q: You've probably heard the expression, "it's raining cats and dogs." Has it ever rained animals?

Actually, that expression comes from the middle ages, when cats and dogs would bed down in the thatch attic of homes. During heavy rains, it was common for the cats and dogs to fall through the roof, giving rise to the term.... (that's my Cliff Claven moment of the day, hehe....)

Charles Fort’s photo



Hi,

The photo disappears, so now I put another.

More on Fort:
. en.wikipedia.org...
. www.forteana.org...

brotherthebig.