There have been numerous reports of frogs, fish and other animals falling from the sky during heavy thunderstorms. One possible explanation for this unusual phenomenon is that the unfortunate creatures are sucked into the air by tornadoes, carried a great distance by the moving weather system, and then dropped to the ground along with the rain.
Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals fall from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported in many countries throughout history. One hypothesis is that tornadic waterspouts sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles. However, this aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed by scientists. It is now accepted that there is only co-incidental association between animals perceived to be falling from the sky and meteorological or earthquake related phenomena.
Rain of flightless animals and things has been reported throughout history. In the first century AD, Roman naturalist Pliny The Elder documented storms of frogs and fish. In 1794, French soldiers saw toads fall from the sky during heavy rain at Lalain, near the French city of Lille. Rural inhabitants in Yoro, Honduras, claim ‘fish rain’ happens there every summer, a phenomenon they call Lluvia de Peces.
A current scientific hypothesis involves tornadic waterspouts: a tornado that forms over the water. Under this hypothesis, a tornadic waterspout transports animals to relatively high altitudes, carrying them over large distances. This hypothesis appears supported by the type of animals in these rains: small and light, usually aquatic, and by the suggestion that the rain of animals is often preceded by a storm. However, the theory does not account for how all the animals involved in each individual incident would be from only one species, and not a group of similarly-sized animals from a single area. Further, the theory also does not account for a genuine tornadic waterspout not actually sucking things up and rather just sort of flinging water vapor out to the sides.
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