Curious Rain

Curious Rain

~When it rains, it pours~

         If you think only rain, snow, and hail fall from the sky, you might want to think again. I'm sure you've heard the expression "It's raining cats and dogs", in reference to a heavy downpour. Have you ever wondered about that expression? Well, one explanation I've heard for this odd phrase comes from mythology. Cats symbolize the rain and dogs represent the wind of the storm. Another originated in early England when occasionally, after a heavy rain, dead animals including cats and dogs would be seen washing down the filthy streets. 1 Though there are no accounts of cats or dogs falling from the sky, there have been accounts of numerous other objects raining down; some explainable, but most still remain a mystery. Those unexplained incidents are what grab my attention.

          As far back as biblical times there have been stories of things coming from the sky. Take, for instance, the plagues of Egypt. Swarms of flies and locusts, as well as hail intermixed with fire, came down upon the Egyptians.2 Also, in the book of Joshua, great hailstones fell upon and killed more of the Israelites' enemies than did their swords.3 Are these indeed miracles from God? Perhaps.

          From as early as the 1700s there have been reports of falling ice. Twenty five to thirty five pound chunks of ice have mysteriously dropped from clear, cloudless skies; from India to Hungary, the UK to the US. In one such report, from Brussels, Belgium 1839, it was said the city was "plunged into pitch darkness and thousands of pieces of ice from one inch to twelve inches in diameter showered down".4 These icefalls have been noted as falling through roofs, on cars and even killing people. Is it merely odd weather that's to blame; sudden temperature drops in the stratosphere? Perhaps they are fragments of comets, which are made of ice and dust. What about the ever popular story of water being flushed from jetliners flying overhead, maybe even ice that has fallen from the wings of airplanes or frozen contrails? If it's blue ice, I imagine more than likely it came from an airliner, but that doesn't explain the ice falls from the 1700s through the 1800s. My guess here would have to be it's weather related. To give you an idea of how often this unexplainable occurrence probably happens, about six years ago while running on the school track, my teenage daughter was within a few yards of where a chunk of ice, about the size of a baseball, fell from a clear sky on a mild spring day. I assume if it can happen here in tiny Melba, Idaho, it can happen anywhere.

         Now then, we come to the more startling things that have fallen out of the sky. Ordinary and not-so-ordinary looking clouds have dropped rocks, insects,seeds, kernels of corn and more all over the world. In 1857, a man in Illinois reported a dark cloud dropping cinders in a v-shape beside him, which quickly caught the ground on fire. Was it a meteor shower? Was the v-shape merely a chance happening or was there something more to it? This one has me stumped.

         Here's one story out of hundreds reported, of falling rocks. A shower of stones, in various sizes from tiny to too large to throw, dropped from a clear sky in Chico, California back in 1922. They continued to fall for days.5 Interestingly enough, the town of Chico is also known for a great fall of fish as well. Are UFOs responsible for this interesting phenomenon? What about time or space warps or parallel universes? An open mind can create all kinds of scenarios.

         Have you ever noticed the scores of earthworms that sometimes gather on sidewalks after a heavy rain? It's almost as if they've fallen from the sky, for it seems they appear out of nowhere. The explanation is simple and usually doesn't involve raining worms, though I imagine Chicken Little would have been very pleased if he had encountered worms falling from the sky. Contrary to popular belief, the worms are not trying to escape drowning. According to worm experts, the reason they are out in the rain is because it's a safe time for them to travel above ground. As long as their skin stays moist, oxygen can pass through it, which is how they breathe. If they dry out, they die.6 Where most times this "wormy" scene comes from below ground, there have been actual reports of
them falling from the sky. One account is that of a massive number of small black worms that were said to have littered the streets of Bucharest, Romania back in 1872 during a rainstorm. 7

         There have been baffling reports of rains of fish as well. Hundreds of fish have been documented as falling in Singapore, England, Australia and the United States, just to name a few places. A report out of Australia in 1989 indicated about 800 "sardines" rained from the sky during a light shower. Another unusual story of falling fish came from Alabama in 1956. Out of a small cloud in an otherwise clear sky fell rain, catfish, bass and other live fish. 8 How can they still be alive? Waterspouts, tornados passing over water, may be the culprits in some cases, but not all. I think a lot of these incidents, though odd, can be explained as these tornado-like winds picking up the fish from shallow bodies of water and then carrying them miles away before dropping them. But how does a storm powerful enough to pick up these fish, be selective enough to drop only the fish? Shouldn't there be other debris? Maybe it's a weight thing; at certain points the storm loses enough strength that it can no longer hold these objects.

          Other bizarre things that have been reported as falling from the skies include frogs, frozen squid, periwinkles, even alligators and snakes. In 1877 it was reported that a rain of snakes, some up to 18 inches long, fell in Memphis, Tennessee.9

         Not only do we have reports of natural materials falling, but also man-made objects. In England, 1982, there was witness to a fifty-pence coin falling from the sky. Throughout the day other coins fell in the same area, the yard of St. Elizabeth’s Church. Witnesses reported that the coins fell from such height that that they dented themselves while falling on pavement and half buried themselves in the dirt.10 That brings to mind the well known phrase, "pennies from heaven".

         But to me the most disturbing rainfall would have to be that of flesh and blood. More cases than you would like to think have been documented. One such incident happened in 1869. It was a clear day in Los Nitos, California, when for three minutes over two acres, blood and pieces of flesh up to six inches long fell, along with short, fine hairs. Two months later, this same sort of fall happened in another California County.11 In most cases, the flesh was determined to be that of animals. I'm convinced this could be the work of experimenting extraterrestrials, haphazardly returning to Earth the specimens they borrowed. Here's a story that just may back up this speculation of mine, though it may just be an urban legend, since it cannot be confirmed. In 1990, the crew of a wrecked fishing boat off the coast of Siberia reported seeing several cows falling from the sky. One said cow came crashing right through the deck and hull, sinking the ship12 Did they fall from a cargo plane as was suggested? I think not! In the mountains nearby where I live, it has been suggested that the mutilations of grazing cattle could very well be the work of extraterrestrials, since at the same time, there were unexplained sightings of strange lights in the sky in that particular area. Perhaps sometimes they "beam" the cattle up for experimentation, and dump them out when finished. There have been many accounts of animals, people and I imagine objects too that just disappear unexplained. Now that's a whole other direction this story could take, but I'll save that for another time.

         Finally, one of the "daffiest" reports I read in my investigations was that of fresh, frozen ducks inside of huge hailstones. This happened in 1933 in Massachusetts.13 Ducks on ice? This would have been a great promotion for the Mighty Ducks hockey team.

          In conclusion, whether you believe these strange falls are natural phenomena, miracles, extraterrestrials or the pranks of man, always beware of weird rain because when it rains, it doesn't always pour.

word count: 1489

Footnotes
1  http://www.phrases.org.uk/index.html
2  Holy Bible, Exodus 8:20-10:20
3  Holy Bible, Joshua 10:11
4  Frank Edwards, Strangest of All, p.149
5  http://www.prairieghosts.com/falls_sky.html
6  http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/WormNotes3.html
7  http://sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/thunderstorms.html
8  http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa082602a.htm
9  http://sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/thunderstorms.html
10  http://members.tripod.com/burns_mike/a/falls
11  http://www.subversiveelement.com/skyfallsfleshfalls.html
12  http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa082602b.htm
13  http://sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/thunderstorms.html