لخّصلي

STRANGE RAIN

What's falling from the sky?

Not long ago, a man in a village in Serbia looked up and saw a strange, dark doud in the sky. Suddenly, hundreds of frogs were falling from the cloud onto the road. A simlar event occured in Hungary five years later, when falling frogs surprised shoppers during a storm. The same year, hundreds of small fish fell on the tiny town of Lajamanu, Australia

Snce early times, there have been reports of frogs, fish, worms, and other creatures taling from the sky. In 200 BCE, a Greek historian reported that it "often rained fishes" near his home. In Yoro, Honduras the rain of fish was at one time so frequent that the town celebrates The Festival of Rain of Fishes every year. Strange rain is hots limited to Iving creatures: in 1969, people in Punta Gorda, Florida, reported a sudden storm of golf bals ye

Where does this strange rain come from?

A writer named Charles Fort was fascinated by these reports. In the early 1900s, he collected more than 60,000 newspaper articles about different forms of strange rain. Although most people who hear about strange rain assume these are just stories. Fort disagreed. He felt there had to be a scientific explanation, yet his own explanations were not particularly scientific! 15. He suggested that an ocean in the clouds might be the cause of the rain. In another idea, he suggested that perhaps the frogs were from a spaceship that had exploded far above the earth.

Most people can agree that Fort's explanations are probably not correct; however, the reports have been frequent enough that experts believe there must be some logical explanation. Today, scientists believe that this strange rain is the result of extreme weather. When powerful winds, especially tornadoes, move over a lake or river, they may pick up the water-and everything in- 20 induding fish and frogs. The strong winds then move across land, often for very long distances. The town of Lajamanu, Australia, for example, is more than 300 miles or 482 kilometers away from a body of water. When the wind becomes weaker, everything fals to the ground, resulting in strange rain.

Strange rain goes to Hollywood

These reports of strange rain have inspired books, television programs, and movies. The Sharknado movies are probably the most 25 well-known movies about creatures that fall from the sky. In these movies, a powerful tornado picks up shark-filled water from the ocean. It drops the water, along with the sharks, across the city of Los Angeles. As they fall through the air, the sharks attack hundreds of people. No one takes these movies seriously, but they are extremely popular. Strange rain makes a good story!