Что такое raining animals
Raining animals
Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals «rain» from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported from many countries throughout history. One hypothesis offered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds traveling over water sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles. [ 1 ] However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed or scientifically tested.
Sometimes the animals survive the fall, suggesting the animals are dropped shortly after extraction. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event. In some incidents, however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely encased in ice. There are examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals, but shredded body parts. Some cases occur just after storms having strong winds, especially during tornadoes.
However, there have been many unconfirmed cases in which rainfalls of animals have occurred in fair weather and in the absence of strong winds or waterspouts.
Rains of animals (as well as rains of blood or blood-like material, and similar anomalies) play a central role in the epistemological writing of Charles Fort, especially in his first book, The Book of the Damned. Fort collected stories of these events and used them both as evidence and as a metaphor in challenging the claims of scientific explanation.
The English language idiom «it is raining cats and dogs», referring to a heavy downpour, is of uncertain etymology, and there is no evidence that it has any connection to the «raining animals» phenomenon.
Note that this is a regular occurrence for birds, which can get killed in flight, or stunned, and then fall (unlike flightless creatures, which first have to be lifted into the air by an outside force). Sometimes this happens in large groups, for instance, the blackbirds falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, United States on December 31, 2010. [ 2 ] It is common for birds to become disoriented (for example, because of bad weather or fireworks) and collide with objects such as trees or buildings, killing them or stunning them into falling to death. The number of blackbirds killed in Beebe is not spectacular considering the size of their congregations, which can be in the millions. [ 3 ] The event in Beebe, however, captured the imagination and lead to more reports in the media of birds falling from the sky across the globe, such as in Sweden and Italy, [ 4 ] though many scientists claim such mass deaths are common occurrences but usually go unnoticed. [ 5 ]
Contents
Explanations
French physicist André-Marie Ampère was among the first scientists to take seriously accounts of raining animals. He tried to explain rains of frogs with a hypothesis that was eventually refined by other scientists. Speaking in front of the Society of Natural Sciences, Ampère suggested that at times frogs and toads roam the countryside in large numbers, and that the action of violent winds can pick them up and carry them great distances. [ 6 ]
More recently, a scientific explanation for the phenomenon has been developed that involves tornadic waterspouts. [ 7 ] Waterspouts are capable of capturing objects and animals and lifting them into the air. Under this theory, waterspouts or tornados transport animals to relatively high altitudes, carrying them over large distances. 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. [ 8 ] More specifically, some tornadoes can completely suck up a pond, letting the water and animals fall some distance away in the form of a rain of animals. [ 9 ]
This hypothesis appears supported by the type of animals in these rains: small and light, usually aquatic. [ 10 ] It is also supported by the fact 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.
In the case of birds, storms may overcome a flock in flight, especially in times of migration. The image to the right shows an example where a group of bats is overtaken by a thunderstorm. [ 11 ] The image shows how the phenomenon could take place in some cases. In the image, the bats are in the red zone, which corresponds to winds moving away from the radar station, and enter into a mesocyclone associated with a tornado (in green). These events may occur easily with birds in flight. In contrast, it is harder to find a plausible explanation for rains of terrestrial animals; the enigma persists despite scientific studies.
Sometimes, scientists have been incredulous of extraordinary claims of rains of fish. For example, in the case of a rain of fish in Singapore in 1861, French naturalist Francis de Laporte de Castelnau explained that the supposed rain took place during a migration of walking catfish, which are capable of dragging themselves over the land from one puddle to another. [ 12 ] Thus, he argued that the appearance of fish on the ground immediately after a rain was easily explained, as these animals usually move over soft ground or after a rain.
Occurrences
The following list is a selection of examples.
Frogs and toads
Others
In literature and popular culture
«Raining cats and dogs»
The English idiom «it is raining cats and dogs», used to describe an especially heavy rain, is of unknown etymology, and is not necessarily related to the «raining animals» phenomenon. [ 29 ] The phrase (with «polecats» instead of «cats») was used at least since the 17th century. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] A number of improbable folk etymologies have been put forward to explain the phrase, [ 32 ] for example:
There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value, like other equivalent English expressions («it is raining pitchforks», «hammer handles», etc.).
Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain: [ 34 ] [ 35 ]
Luke’s ENGLISH Podcast
Learn British English with Luke Thompson
135. Raining Animals
“It’s raining cats and dogs” – Do native speakers of English often use this idiom to describe heavy rain or do they use different expressions? Also, is it really possible that animals can fall down from the sky like rain?
Right-click here to download this episode.
Introduction
What do people really say when they’re talking about heavy rainstorms?
Is it really possible for animals to rain down from the sky? What are the explanations of this phenomenon?
What is the origin of the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs?”
What other idioms about heavy rain exist in other countries and languages?
What would happen to Luke if he was struck by lightning while recording an episode of the podcast? Would he just be electocuted to death, or would he become some kind of podcasting super-hero? (probably the former option)
In this episode, I discuss all of these questions, while a thunderstorm passes overhead and the rain beats down on the roof of my apartment. Listen, and please add your comments below.
How’s the weather where you are, while you listen to this?
What idiom do you use in your language to describe heavy rain?
Do you have any stories about animals falling from the sky?
We’d like to know about them!
Extracts from Wikipedia
I read a few extracts from the wikipedia page for ‘raining animals’ in this episode. Below you can read those extracts. Time codes are also given in square brackets [15.42] – these indicate the times at which I say these things in the episode.
Rain of animals
Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals “rain” from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported in many countries throughout history. One hypothesis offered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds traveling over water sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles.
[16:10]
[17:41]
However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed or scientifically tested.
[17:48]
Explanations
Sometimes the animals survive the fall, suggesting the animals are dropped shortly after extraction. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event.
[18:13]
[22:00]
In some incidents, however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely encased in ice. There are examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals, but shredded body parts. Some cases occur just after storms having strong winds, especially during tornadoes.
[22:22]
[23:35]
However, there have been many unconfirmed cases in which rainfalls of animals have occurred in fair weather and in the absence of strong winds or waterspouts.
[23:46]
[24:00]
The English language idiom, “It is raining cats and dogs” (referring to a heavy downpour), is of uncertain etymology, and there is no evidence that it has any connection to the “raining animals” phenomenon.
[24:13]
[24:52]
This is a regular occurrence for birds, which can get killed in flight, or stunned and then fall (unlike flightless creatures, which first have to be lifted into the air by an outside force).
[25:05]
[25:56]
Sometimes this happens in large groups, for instance, the blackbirds falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas, United States on December 31, 2010. It is common for birds to become disoriented (for example, because of bad weather or fireworks) and collide with objects such as trees or buildings, killing them or stunning them into falling to their death.
[26:22]
[27:02]
The number of blackbirds killed in Beebe is not spectacular considering the size of their congregations, which can be in the millions.
[27:11]
[27:32]
The event in Beebe, however, captured the imagination and led to more reports in the media of birds falling from the sky across the globe, such as in Sweden and Italy, though many scientists claim such mass deaths are common occurrences but usually go unnoticed.
[27:50]
[28:36]
French physicist André-Marie Ampère was among the first scientists to take seriously accounts of raining animals. He tried to explain rains of frogs with a hypothesis that was eventually refined by other scientists.
[28:51]
[29:02]
Speaking in front of the Society of Natural Sciences, Ampère suggested that at times frogs and toads roam the countryside in large numbers, and that the action of violent winds can pick them up and carry them great distances.
[29:18]
[30:30]
More recently, a scientific explanation for the phenomenon has been developed that involves tornadic waterspouts.
[30:38]
[31:31]
Waterspouts are capable of capturing objects and animals and lifting them into the air. Under this theory, waterspouts or tornados transport animals to relatively high altitudes, carrying them over large distances. The winds were capable of lifting the animals over a relatively wide area and allow them to fall in a concentrated fashion in a localized area. More specifically, some tornadoes can completely suck up a pond, letting the water and animals fall some distance away in the form of a “rain of animals”.
[32:06]
[33:54]
This hypothesis appears supported by the type of animals in these rains: small and light, usually aquatic, it’s also supported by the fact 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.
[34:20]
[34:45]
In the case of birds, storms may overcome a flock in flight, especially in times of migration.
[34:59]
[35:10]
The image to the right shows an example where a group of bats is overtaken by a thunderstorm. The image shows how the phenomenon could take place in some cases. In the image, the bats are in the red zone, which corresponds to winds moving away from the radar station, and enter into a mesocyclone associated with a tornado (in green).
[35:34]
[35:44]
These events may occur easily with birds in flight. In contrast, it is harder (here we have mistake in audio, should be harder not easier) to find a plausible explanation for rains of terrestrial animals. The enigma persists despite scientific studies.
[35:56]
[36:20]
Sometimes, scientists have been incredulous of extraordinary claims of rains of fish
For example, in the case of a rain of fish in Singapore in 1861, French naturalist Francis de Laporte de Castelnau explained that the supposed rain took place during a migration of walking catfish, which are capable of dragging themselves over the land from one puddle to another. Thus, he argued that the appearance of fish on the ground immediately after a rain was easily explained, as these animals usually move over soft ground or after a rain.
[37:18]
Occurrences
“Raining cats and dogs”
The English idiom “it is raining cats and dogs”, used to describe an especially heavy rain, is of unknown etymology, and is not necessarily related to the “raining animals” phenomenon. The phrase was used at least since the 17th century. A number of improbable folk etymologies have been put forward to explain the phrase
[42:47]
[49:08]
There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value, like other equivalent English expressions.
[49:18]
[49:50]
Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain.
[49:53]
‘Heavy Rain’ Idioms From Around The World (care of Wikipedia)
Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain:[37][38]
Afrikaans: ou vrouens met knopkieries reen (“old women with clubs”)
Bengali: মুষলধারে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে musholdhare brishṭi poṛchhe (“in a stream of mallets”)
Bosnian: padaju ćuskije (“crowbars”)
Bosnian: lije ko iz kabla (“it’s pouring like from a bucket”)
Cantonese: “落狗屎” (“dog poo”)
Chinese: “倾盆大雨” (“its pouring out of basins”)
Catalan: Ploure a bots i barrals (“boats and barrels”)
Croatian: padaju sjekire (“axes dropping”)
Czech: padají trakaře (“wheelbarrows”)
Czech: leje jako z konve (“like from a watering can”)
Danish: det regner skomagerdrenge (“shoemakers’ apprentices”)
Dutch: het regent pijpenstelen (“pipe stems or stair rods”)
Dutch (Flemish): het regent oude wijven (“old women”)
Dutch (Flemish): het regent kattenjongen (“kittens”)
Faroese : Tað regnar av grind (“Pilot whales”)
Finnish: Sataa kuin Esterin perseestä (“It’s raining like from Esteri’s ass”)
French: il pleut comme vache qui pisse (“it is raining like a peeing cow”)
French: il pleut à sceaux (“it’s raining like from buckets”)
French: il pleut des hallebardes (“it is raining halberds”), clous (“nails”), or cordes (“ropes”)
German: Es regnet junge Hunde (“young dogs”) or Es schüttet wie aus Eimern (“like poured from buckets”)
Greek: βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα (“chair legs”)
Hindi: musaldhār bārish (“a stream of mallets”)
Hungarian: mintha dézsából öntenék (“like poured from a vat”)
Icelandic: Það rignir eins og hellt sé úr fötu (“like poured from a bucket”)
Italian: piove a catinelle (“poured from a basin”)
Latvian: līst kā no spaiņiem (“it’s raining like from buckets”)
Nepali: मुसलधारे झरी (“a stream of mallets”)
Norwegian: det regner trollkjerringer (“she-trolls”)
Polish: pada żabami (“frogs”)
Portuguese: está a chover canivetes (“penknives”)
Portuguese: Chove a potes (“It is raining by the pot load”)
Portuguese: Chove a cântaros (“It is raining by the jug load”)
Romanian: plouă cu broaşte (“frogs”)
Russian: льет как из ведра (“from a bucket”)
Spanish: están lloviendo chuzos de punta (“shortpikes/icicles point first” – not only is it raining a lot, but it’s so cold and windy that being hit by the drops hurts)
Spanish: está lloviendo a cántaros (“by the clay pot-full”)
Spanish: llueven sapos y culebras (“toads and snakes”)
Spanish (Argentina): caen soretes de punta (“pieces of dung head-first”)
Spanish (Venezuela): esta cayendo un palo de agua (“a stick of water is falling”)
Spanish (Colombia): “Estan lloviendo maridos” “Van a llover maridos” (It’s raining husbands, It will rain husbands)
Serbian: padaju sekire (“axes”)
Swedish: Det regnar smådjävlar (“It is raining little devils”)
Swedish: regnet står som spön i backen (“the rain stands like poles out of the ground”)
Turkish: bardaktan boşanırcasına (“like poured from a cup”)
Urdu: musladhār bārish (“a stream of mallets”)
Welsh: mae hi’n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn (“old ladies and sticks”)
Song – Why Does It Always Rain on Me by Travis
Note: Red T-Shirt designed by my bro 😉
Thanks for listening to the podcast. Thanks also for messages which are sent to me all the time (even during the recording of episodes). I carefully consider everything which is written to me. All the best and enjoy this episode, Luke
Rain of Animals: A Rare Scientific Phenomenon Where Animals Seem to Fall from the Sky Inexplicably
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An artwork of cats, dogs and pitchfork falling from the sky. (George Cruikshank / National Gallery of Victoria)
Drops of water falling from the skies are normal, also the fall of snow and ice. But if rain, apart from these three, is seen to precipitate animals or parts thereof, it surely isn’t normal. Such cases have been documented in history, as well as in scientific journals. So, these can’t be dismissed as hearsay, conjecture or prank. What is it that defies logic and tempts people to believe that animals can rain just like water drops?
Rain of Animals is part of human history
Animals falling from the sky, like water drops in the rain, are part of human history and folklore. Frogs and fish raining find mention in the works of the Roman writer, Pliny, the Elder. Pictorial depiction of animal rain on rocks has been found in archaeological surveys. Also, on the record are thousands of eyewitness’s accounts testifying to these weird rainfalls in the course of human history. Indeed, the events were scrutinized and many dismissed it as fake. Yet the frenzy persisted, leading to the lasting impression that animals can indeed rain down like drops of water.
Japan, Australia, America, all witnessed fish rain
A report on June 2009 says multiple instances of animal rain happened in the Ishikawa region of Japan. A 55-year-old, standing close to a parking lot in Nanao city, said he heard a loud bang and on rushing in the direction of the sound, he saw dead tadpoles, in their hundreds, lying on the windshield of cars. Likewise, in 2010, live fish fell from the sky on successive nights in Lajamau, Australia. Curiously, the same thing happened in this town, even in the year 1974 and 2004. Fish fall at Marksville, America, as narrated by a wildlife biologist, was more spectacular. He recorded the density of the fall as one fish per square yard and reported that fish fell on roads and housetops. He took care to collect and preserve the fallen fish for public demonstration.
No single explanation answers all queries
Now, a reality check. At the outset, it would be safe to assume that at least some of the stories may have been hyped. Animals dying en-masse, in a group, is a well-known matter of fact. Could animal rains be just that, the deaths in a group? In the year 2011, Black Birds fell in clusters in Arkansas and Louisiana in America, and in Sweden within 5 days of each other. Arkansas, in addition, witnessed a lakh of drum fish die off in a 20-mile stretch. The event was explained thus: the New Year fireworks frightened the roosting birds that then flew erratically with disastrous result. Flying avian may collide with high tension electric wires or be hit by hail or lightning. Sudden panic too can kill birds with cardiac arrest. Regarding drum fish, the incident was linked to some unidentified disease as only one species was involved. However, no single explanation clears all doubts related to events.
Animal rain is part of the human psyche as well
Folklores impact human mind subtly, subconsciously. So, for all such cases, the influence of folklores validating animal rains can’t be overruled. The public mind primed to such stories can’t be rational when the rain of animal is reported from real life. It fits into a pre-set mental frame. Also, man is generally confined to his daily chores and has no time to ‘stand and stare’, to have a fulsome view of the environment he lives in. In effect, he knows little about his natural surroundings.
Maybe the living or dead which one sees spread on the ground in rain or storm, already existed there, hidden somewhere. Seen for the first time, it is erroneously inferred to have ‘rained’ down. In reality, it was relocated to a different, visible place. The dying or died-off organisms already existed in nearby locations, but weren’t observed in normal times. Some exigencies popped them out and bashed them in an unseemly place. Fish, frog, birds and other animals were just lifted from their homes and thrown out in open. This could happen with or without the presence of rains, storms, accidents and disease conditions.
Flying birds may drop their food during the flight
Interestingly, the cases of animal rain keep appearing time and again. And also the speculations and hypothesis about them. Like Indian officials speculating that a flock of migrating pelicans carrying fish in their beaks dropped them while flying, creating an impression of fish rain.
An incident of 3rd March 1876, mentioned in Scientific Americana, is about chunks of meat falling from the sky. The chunks fell in a 100×50 yard area in Kentucky, America and were found to be venison or mutton. The meat shower happened because buzzards, the meat-eating birds, vomited while flying. If one bird in the flock of this species throws out ingested food, other birds disgorge in camaraderie. Thus, pieces of meat fell on the ground.
Whirlwind throwing animals up in the air could be a possibility
Waterspout off the coast of Florida. (NOAA)
French physicist Andre Marie Ampere was the first scientist to go deep into the matter. According to him, gusts of wind carried a bunch of frogs up in the air to great heights. Therefrom, the frogs fell to the ground, like it’s raining. The current hypothesis of ‘waterspouts’ is the probable cause of animal rain vibes in Ampere’s view.
Waterspout, a kind of tornado formed over water bodies, can suck in animals and throw them up in the sky. This, incidentally, explains why most such rains reveal fish and frog only. Other types of tornadoes can verily throw other organisms up in the air, like worms and spiders. But the rain of such organisms is rare. The popular phrase ‘raining cats and dogs’ doesn’t have any scientific basis.
It could be a dislocation on the ground and not rain from above
The mystery remains unsolved. How come only one species is seen involved at a time? It’s either fish or frog. Why not fish and frog, both together? Ideally, a combo is a distinct possibility when airlift happens from a habitat having multiple species. Quantum of airlift from any water body has not been reported or calibrated as yet. As such, waterspout doesn’t explain all about the rain of animals.
Menacing storm, circling winds, heavy rains and hordes of fish flapping in rain were observed in Central America. An investigation by the National Geographic in 1970 revealed that fish which seemingly rained down were blind, uniformly sized and alien to fish living nearby waters. The rained fish, the investigation said, came from underground rivers. How exactly they came over ground from underground, along with the storm every year in the month of August, couldn’t be explained. Albeit one thing is clear. It isn’t a fall from skies, but just a transfer to a new location on the ground.
Rain can be unusual even without the ‘animal’ factor
Bizarre rain can happen even without the ‘animal’ factor as happened in Siberia in January 2007. In a place close to Kazakhstan, where a heavy sandstorm blew a while back, orange coloured snowfall was seen. The investigation revealed that the colour was on account of orange coloured sand mixing with snow. Even red coloured rains are reported, and surprisingly, these predate the ‘animal’ rains. Homer’s epic poem Iliad talks of blood rain. That can be rated poetic imagination, but there are references to red coloured rain even post this seminal literature. The one in Kerala, India, happened between 25th July to 23rd September 2001, when red coloured rain was reported. In bits, the rain was perceived to be of yellow, green and even black colour.
Algae and dust particles may have caused red rain
The red rain was investigated by Centre for Earth Science Studies, Kerala. The red colour was attributed to dust particles, dissolved salts and polluting elements. The dust particle could be from the Sahara Desert or a meteorite. The microorganisms from Africa and South America, algae and other aquatic life could also be responsible for the colour. The Red Rain of Sicily in 1872 was ascribed to meteoric dust and a slew of organic and inorganic compounds. Godfrey Louis and Santhosh Kumar Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, contended that red colour of rainwater was on account of alien microbes released from a disintegrating comet, and not because of algae.
Animal rain, it seems, will remain in reckoning even in the times to come.
Fact Analysis:
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