Thursday, April 1, 2010

Were you aware of it? vol. 28: Raining fish in Australia

No joke. I am reminded of Kafka on the Shore and Magnolia.

2 March 2010.
Lajamanu, Australia
.
Residents of a small outback Australian town have been left speechless after fish began falling from the sky.

Hundreds of spangled perch bombarded the 650 residents of Lajamanu, shocking local Christine Balmer, who was walking home when the strange 'weather' started.

She said: 'These fish fell in their hundreds and hundreds all over the place. The locals were running around everywhere picking them up.

'The fish were all alive when they hit the ground so they would have been alive when they were up there flying around the sky.
'When I told my family, who live in another part of Australia, about the fish falling from the sky, they thought I'd lost the plot.
'But no, I haven't lost my marbles. All I can say is that I'm thankful that it didn't rain crocodiles!'

Meterologists say the incident was probably caused by a tornado. It is common for tornados to suck up water and fish from rivers and drop them hundreds of miles away.

Mark Kersemakers from the Australian Bureau of Meterology said: 'Once they get up into the weather system, they are pretty much frozen and, after some time, they are released.'

Lajamanu is located half-way between Darwin and Alice Springs, on the edge of the Tanami Desert.

This is not the first time residents of the small town have experienced fish falling out of the sky.

Resident Les Dillon, 48, said: 'In the early 1980s I was at the Alice Springs Tavern Hotel and, when I walked out the door, I saw all these little fish, fallen out of the sky.

'Yes, I had a couple of beers, so none of my friends believed me. I have rung heaps of people to let them know I wasn't drunk back then. It had really happened!'


**Courtesy of the Daily Mail via the Skeptics Guide to the Universe. See the original article for an extra list of crazy things falling from the sky through history.

Plus this from the BBC

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