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When it actually rains cats and dogs (Part 1)

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Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th Century p...

Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th Century portrait. No contemporary depiction of Pliny has survived. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it actually rains cats and dogs (Part 1)

You’ve probably heard the saying “it’s raining cats and dogs” usually this is in reference to the torrential that is currently hitting your area, but you have ever considered thought that animals may actually fall from the sky from time to time. Accounts of raining frogs and fish have been recorded by Pliny the Elder in the first century AD, and some even believe that phenomena such as this can explain the plague of frogs recorded in the book of Exodus from ancient Egypt. [1]

Raining animals is actually an extremely rare phenomenon that still occurs on Earth today: flightless animals have literally been reported to literally “rain” from the sky. This phenomenon is such a rare occurrence that it has never been able to be properly studied and meteorologists can only hypothesis what is causing this, from observing the reports received regarding falling animals from the sky.

Tornadoes may lift up animals into the air and...

Tornadoes may lift up animals into the air and deposit them miles away. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even here within Australia there have been reports in the town Lajamanu that “hundreds and hundreds” of small white fish had fallen from the sky. The Northern Territory news reports on the 28th of February 2010 that it was not the first time this small town reported fish falling from the sky with a similar incident occurring in 2004 and in 1974 with this even capturing the attention of international media. This event has perplexed meteorologists as many meteorologists hypothesise the “raining” of animals occur because of tornados, yet no tornados were reported in the area despite having the ideal weather situation for tornados to occur. [2]

Fish and amphibians are the most common animal to fall from the sky, one account of fish falling from the sky in tremendous amounts was over Marksville, Louisiana back on October 23, 1947. A.D Bajkov reported that “There were spots on Main Street, in vicinity of the bank averaging one fish per square yard.” [3] Although these kinds of animals are the most common to appear in this rare phenomena many other animals have been reported to fall from the sky.

Worms [4], sharks [5], cows [6] and even a puppy [7] have been reported to fall from the sky but all these were not necessarily caused by the weather. It is assumed that the cow that fell from the sky merely fell off a cliff [6], and the puppy that rained from above was actually dropped by a hawk, I guess the puppy was lucky in a way. [7]

Yet the large amounts of fish falling from the sky have been attributed to weather patterns, yet how does such weather work to lift animals into the sky? Check part 2 for more information.

References

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3582802.stm

[2] http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/02/28/127891_ntnews.html

[3] http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/rainingfrogs.html

[4] http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/240577-its-raining-worms-schoolchildrens-lesson-interrupted-by-falling-creepy-crawlies/

[5] http://www.golfmagic.com/news/stand-aside-tiger-its-leopards-turn/13062.html

[6] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308676,00.html

[7] http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Hawk-Puppy—AAS-151632965.html



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