Strange Rains

Mysterious things that fall from the Sky

Recently I began reading ‘The Book of the Damned’ by Charles Fort.  So far I have found it to be a very interesting read.  I had previously heard of weird things falling from the sky before, but after only a few chapters in, I found myself blown away.  The shear number of weird and strange things that rain from the sky over these many years was mind boggling.  Rocks, Fish, Frogs, Crabs, Lizards, Corn Husks, Snakes, Alligators, Mana, Candy, Flesh and Blood, to name a few.  This obviously sparked my interest to look into this a little more.

                                                                              Star Jelly

The following is a timeline I put together of some of these Mysterious Rains.  This timeline is by no means complete.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

1833 November 13th, Rahway, New Jersey - Had a very mysterious rain occur on the morning of November 13th 1833 that the citizens described as “Raining Fire”.  Upon investigating this strange phenomena, they came across a translucent yellow, jelly-like substance.  Weirder still is later when they went to retrieve some of this jelly, it had seemingly dried into a clump of particles resembling sand.  When touched, it is said to have disintegrated and disappeared.

1851 February 15th, Simpson County North Carolina - Citizens of Simpson County had one of the most disturbing rains of them all.  They had flesh and blood rain on them.  It was only over a small area, but it was also far from the last of it’s kind.

1851 July 24th, San Francisco - In the same year, blood and flesh again fell, this time on Benicia Army Base.  It was believed to be beef, and after some testing was shown evidence of it being tainted by a disease of some kind.

1857 January 17th, Ottawa Illinois - Speaking of Fiery Rains, Cinders or even ash fell upon a farm in Ottawa Illinois.  Though it only landed in a small area, the larger cinders burnt themselves into the ground.

1857 September 11th, Lake County California - The kids in Lake County California had a nice treat befall them as candy rained from the sky on two separate nights.  It is rumored that some of the sweets that fell from the sky where turned into syrup among other treats, and seemed fine to consume.  Whatever is causing these strange phenomena seems to not only have a sense of humor, but a sweet tooth.

1869 August 1st, Los Nietos California - Another rain of blood and flesh showered several acres of a farm in Los Nietos.  The rain only lasted a few minutes and then stopped.  The event was blamed on Buzzards whom might of regurgitated mid-flight.

1870 August, Sacramento California - Thousands of Lizards only a few inches in length rained over a small area in Sacramento California.  They where alive when the hit the ground and houses, and many survived the impact, living for several days after in the water drains.

1876 March 3rd, Bath Kentucky - Flakes of meat fell on Bath Kentucky.  The meat was believed to beef, as it couldn’t be properly identified as any other meat.  These flakes of meat averaged about 3 inches long and wide.  It fell over an area about 45,000 square feet

1877, South California - Several Alligators rained from the sky over a small area in South California.  They, like the lizards, where still alive upon impact and continued to move around.

1877, Memphis Tennessee -  Thousands of snakes about 15 inches in length fell on the southern part of Tennessee.  They again where still alive when they hit the ground.   It was theorized that a hurricane is what lifted and dropped off these snakes, but a lingering and unanswered question remained that put a stupor in the theory, which was how could so many of the same species of snake, collect together, then be lifted and dropped off by a hurricane in a particular location, without other debris tagging along.

1881, Worcester England - A strange storm poured tons of crabs, identified as the Periwinkle Crab upon Worcester in England.  Not much else seems known about this.

1881 October, Milwaukee Wisconsin - An interesting change of pace of strange things that fall happened in Milwaukee.  Long ribbons of what appeared to be spider webs fell in blankets.  Some where as long as 60 feet in length.  There was no mention of seeing spider before, during or after the event.

1886 September 4th, Charleston South Carolina - Stones rained from seemingly no where in the sky on a building in Charleston.  The stones where reportedly warm to the touch, and came down with a lot of force.  This stone rain repeated itself two additional times that day.

1896 November, Baton Rouge Louisiana - Baton Rouge experienced something that we recently have experienced.  A flurry of dead birds fell from a clear blue sky, cluttering the streets.  There where no discernable reason as to the bird’s deaths, but it was believed a storm drove them inland, in which they where struck by a sudden temperature change that caused the death shortly before plummeting.

1947 October 23rd, Marksville Louisiana - The same year as the famous crash of Roswell, New Mexico, Louisiana had it’s own little crash, of fish.  The conditions in the sky where fair, but not perfect.  Though there were no storms in the sky, there may have been fog at the time.  Fish then suddenly began falling from the sky over 300 meters long and 30 meters wide.  The falling fish also struck many pedestrians on the street.

1950 September 26th, Philadelphia - Two Philadelphia police officers on the night of the 26th spotted what appeared to be a luminous object falling from the sky into an open field in the distance.  Upon investigation, their flashlights illuminated what appeared to be a six foot mass of pulsating, purplish jelly.  Soon two other officers joined them and they tried to move the mass of jelly.  When they tried to lift it, it broke apart in their hands.  A half and hour later, the jelly mass had evaporated and was gone.

1953 September 7th, Leicester Massachusetts - A hailstorm of Frogs and Toads rained from the sky in Leicester.  This swarm of Frogs cluttered the streets and congested the storm drains.

1961 July 12th, Shreveport Louisiana - Green Peaches began raining from a single dark cloud looming in the sky above Shreveport.  The peaches where about the size of golf balls, rained down on some workers on a roof July 12th.  This strange event only lasted a few moments before passing.

1981 May, Nafplion Greece - One morning in May, Nafplion, a city in Southern Greece, awoke to a tiny, yet very large rain.  Little tiny frogs, weighing only a few ounces and native to North Africa, began raining from the sky.  These small frogs seemed unharmed by their fall, and continued hopping around after landing in the streets and some trees.

1994 August 7th, Oakville Washington - The little town of Oakville had a peculiar rain one evening when little drops of jelly-like substance rained from the sky.  After the rain, the townspeople began to fall ill, which lasted for several weeks.  This strange rain occurred at least five more times there, and after some testing on the goo, they found the jelly to be a living substance.

2001 August, Wichita Kansas - Residents of Wichita witnessed Corn Husks falling from the sky.  These sheathes fell in the thousands over east Wichita, and measured about 25 inches long.

2007 April 6th, Argentina - A man from Argentina and his friends decided to take a hike up a mountain for their Easter vacation.  At about 3:00 in the afternoon, the strangest, and probably creepiest thing occurred, it started raining spiders.  The sky had some clouds, but nothing beyond that, other then the spiders.  Several even landed on them as they preceded to hike up the mountain.  This event is widely recognized as one of the hikers managed to take several photos of this freaky rain.

2009, Scotland - Jelly again rained from the sky, this time in Scotland.  The small globs of jelly, dubbed ‘Star Jelly’, where investigated by scientists commissioned by National Geographic.  They have yet to find any DNA in this Jelly, and no adequate explanation as to the Star Jelly’s origins have been accepted yet.  It remains a mystery.

2010 December 31st, Beebe Arkansas - One of the most recent events to occur made it into the media across the country.  Blackbirds, presumably dead, began falling from the sky late New Year’s Eve, 2010.  Thousands of birds fell on houses, in roads and fields of the area.  The cause of this is unknown, but many theories are out there ranging from Fireworks that startled the birds into plummeting to their deaths, to a sudden change in temperature where they were flying which might have caused them to go into shock, and fall to their deaths.  The theories don’t end there, but the mystery remains in the air.

2012 January 26th, Bournemouth United Kingdom - Blue jelly-like spheres fell from the sky, along with a hailstorm on a man's yard. These spheres, about 3 cm in diameter, where near impossible to pick up by hand because of it's sleek coating, and had to be scooped up instead. They were found to be incredibly fragile, yet did not dissolve in water. It was also noted that they did not have a smell to them.

These are far from the only accounts of strange rains that have peaked our curiosity or plagued our imagination.  The more I looked into these rains,  the more I ran into additional events, too many to list here sadly.  But it seems throughout our history, strange, weird or even supernatural things continue to fall right out of the sky at us.

Some of the most popular theories as to how and why these mix of things pour down on us, range from Tornados to Hurricanes, or Volcanoes blowing something away or that they never rained in the first place, they either where there all along and we didn’t notice them, or in the case of animals, they came in on there own, and we assumed they fell from the sky.

The only real issue I have with these theories is in many cases, there is almost always something very specific about what, or how it rains.  Some cases involving animals would rain only a specific species of animal, or family.  Others it was the pin-point accuracy of these rains that was the anomaly, or that in many cases, the animals where unharmed, or even the shear number of animals in the rain.  My favorite is the Jelly, because it is just strange, and it’s origins and substance can’t be identified.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did researching it.

I now leave you with another lolcats!

Till Next Time!


Sources:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/falls_sky.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/433325/mysterious_rains_the_strange_things.html?cat=34
http://www.weirdworm.com/8-strange-things-that-fell-from-the-sky/

‘The Book of the Damned’ by Charles Fort:

http://www.resologist.net/damnei.htm