The phenomenon can be explained simply: In strong enough winds, during a thunderstorm for example, small whirlwinds, water sprouts, or mini-tornadoes may form. When these travel over water, any small items of debris in their path, such as fish or frogs, get picked up and carried for up to several miles. The winds are capable of carrying the animals over a relatively wide area and allow them to fall in a concentrated fashion in a localized area.
Though, it is still a mystery that accounts of raining animals always seem to involve just one species. It's always either raining fish or raining frogs, but it never seems to rain cats or dogs! Waterspouts and tornadoes shouldn't discriminate like that!
Some explain it is possible that only tightly concentrated clusters of animals are dense enough to cause these rainstorms, which would make it more likely that only one species is involved. Still, it's a bit of an enigma, and one worth looking into further.
Weird rain incidents have been recorded all over the world, throughout the ages. Here are a couple of examples:
‘Pliny the Elder’, a Roman naturalist mentioned storms of frogs and fish in the first century AD.
In 1794, French soldiers witnessed fall of toads from the sky during heavy rain near the French city of Lille.
In 1857, people from Lake County in California reported fall of sugar crystals from the sky.
Incident of fish rain was recorded at Singapore in 1861.
It rained fish in the tiny town of Lajamau in Australia's Northern Territory on February 24 and 25, 2010.
Residents of Kandanassery village near Kerala were taken by surprise in February 2008, when small fishes started raining down towards the end of a sudden downpour.
“When convective clouds are formed, it is possible that tiny aquatic organisms get lifted to the atmosphere. They can survive suspended in the clouds so long as the clouds have moisture content”, explains Mahesh Palawat, Head of the weather forecasting team at Skymet Weather.
Months before this occurrence, a few places in Kerala had received 'red coloured' rain. Scientist explained this might have happened due to presence of algae in the clouds.
There are also examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals, but shredded body parts. However, the primary aspect of such phenomenon has never been scientifically tested.
Photo by Nicholas Chan.