It's Raining Fish and Spiders (7 page)
Read It's Raining Fish and Spiders Online
Authors: Bill Evans
When a tornado passes over a lake or pond, it can sweep up objects of all shapes and sizes, and then drop them some distance away. Waterspouts have swept up different species of fish, eels, worms, birds, jellyfish, squid, and even alligators, carrying them many miles inland and depositing them on unsuspecting residents below, often encased in ice or hail.
Waterspouts and tornadoes can lift living creatures high into the clouds, where the temperature can be as cold as â60ºF (16ºC), and the animals become covered with ice. Sometimes the creatures fall to the ground alive but frightened. Often times the “deposit” happens in an area where the sun is out and the sky is blue, leaving everyone who witnessed the event to wonder what happened!
Here are some other reported occurrences:
In 1995, Nellie Straw was driving through Scotland in a storm when hundreds of frogs pelted her car.
In 1881, in Worcester, England, a thunderstorm brought down tons of periwinkles and crabs.
In 1890, birds' blood rained down on Messignadi in Calabria, Italy.
In 1877, several 1-foot-long alligators fell on J. L. Smith's farm in South Carolina.
In November 1996, a town in southern Tasmania was slimed. Apparently it had rained either fish eggs or baby jellyfish.
A Korean fisherman, trolling off the coast of the Falkland Islands, was knocked unconscious by a single frozen squid that fell from the sky.
In 2004, Kate Walker of Dartford, England, got the shock of her life when twenty crabs rained down on her while she was gardening.
In 1966, Father Leonard Bourne was dashing from a downpour across a courtyard in North Sydney, Australia, when a large fish fell from the sky and landed on his shoulder. The priest nearly caught it as it slid down his chest, but it squirmed away, fell to the flooded ground and swam away!
In 1989, in Ipswich, Australia, Harold Degen's front lawn was covered with about eight hundred sardines that rained down from above in a light shower.
In Chilatchee, Alabama, in 1956, a woman and her husband watched a small dark cloud form in an otherwise clear sky. When it was overhead, the cloud released its contents: rain, catfish, bass, and breamâall of the fish alive! What a dinner they must have had!
Great Tornado Web Sites >>>>
All about Tornadoes:
www.tornadoproject.com/
Frequently asked Tornado Questions:
www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/
Fujita EF Scale:
www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/
All about Derechos and Straight-line Winds:
www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm
Tornado Graphics:
www.usatoday.com/weather/tg/wtorwhat/wtorwhat.htm
Try This at Home!
Make Your Own Tornado!
Tornado in a Box (Best!):
www.tornadoproject.com/cellar/workshop.htm
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Tornado in a Bottle (Easier!):
www.weatherwizkids.com/tornado1.htm
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Tornado in a Jar (Easiest!):
www.weatherwizkids.com/tornado2.htm
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Tornado in Another Box:
wow.osu.edu/experiments/weather/tornado.html