Sunday, February 28, 2010

It's Raining Fish in Australia

Much of Australia has been battered by torrential rains, but a territory town has something else falling from the sky - fish.
This has happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon.
Hundreds of small white fish were falling from the sky, they fell from the sky everywhere, and
the fish were alive when they hit the ground.
In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a similar incident captured international headlines.
The small white fish are believed to be spangled perch, which are very common through much of northern Australia.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region.
He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the phenomena to occur - but no tornadoes have been reported to the authority.
"It's a very unusual event," he said.
"With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet.
"Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body - but we haven't had any reports," he said.

Not sure if there is a connection, but here's an1555 engraving of raining fish.