Curious Cases of the Sky Raining Fish

Curious Cases of the Sky Raining Fish

We’ve all heard of the saying, ā€œit’s raining cats and dogsā€ but apparently it rains fish too… and quite literally. Many countries have experienced the natural phenomena of fishes falling straight out of the sky and most times, it’s because a nearby waterspout picked up the fish from the ocean and dumped them over on dry land. Those who love fishing would have a much easier time of bring a great catch home, with barely any effort too. Let’s take a look at five curious cases of the sky raining fish.

1. Fairbanks, Alaska

Seeing regular fish fall out of the sky is weird enough, but what about those with eel-like bodies and large suckers for a mouth. Now that’s something straight out of a nightmare. In June 2015, the people of Fairbanks, Alaska were greeted by four lampreys, suckerfish with really large teeth. Of the four creatures, only one managed to survive. It was found in a store parking lot and placed in a bucket. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game theorized that the fishes were most likely dropped by gulls, as evidenced by the small, evenly spaced holes on their sides.

2. Yoro, Honduras

In other parts of the world, ā€œfish rainā€ is an absurd phenomenon that leaves everyone scratching their heads. But not in Yoro, Honduras where every May or June, the locals brace themselves for the much-anticipated Lluvia de Peces or ā€œRain of Fish.ā€ It turns out that this is a pretty frequent occurrence there, one that is the result of waterspouts sucking up fish and dropping them off in Yoro, much to the enjoyment of the residents. Where most people would be annoyed; the people of Yoro see the fish as a gift from God.

3. Knighton, Wales

On August 18, 2004, while en route to a meeting, a group of writers came face-to-face with a school of small fish right in the middle of the town. A few of the fish were still alive, but they died shortly after due to the lack of water, obviously. The nearest coast was at least 50 miles or 80 kilometers from the dumping site. Something, most likely a waterspout, transported them all the way from the ocean.

4. Tampico, Mexico

On September 26 2017, the small Mexican town of Tampico was hit with what was supposed to be a regular shower of rain. To everyone’s surprise, something other than water fell out of the sky that day—it was a deluge of fish that no one cared to collect. According to Pedro Granados, director of civil protection in Tamaulipas state, raining fish was the least of their problems since they were frequently bombarded with natural disasters like floods and earthquakes.

5. Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Dire Dawa is a fairly large Ethiopian city with a population of over half a million. In January 2016, the city was still in the middle of a severe drought when the unexpected happened: fish started pouring out of the sky, on a clear and cloudless day too. No one saw any winds and there weren’t any nearby cyclones either. Everyone was ecstatic to say the least and unlike the Tampico residents, the already economically oppressed people of Dire Dawa were more than happy to take the fish home.

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