The Billy Lids

In 1954 in Birmingham, England, there was a heavy rainstorm and to the amazement of the people in the streets, hundreds of small frogs came down with the rain. The frogs fell on people's hats, coats and umbrellas. They landed on cars, on the roof tops and on the footpaths. The frogs fell gently and didn't seem to be hurt by their fall, and just hopped happily away.

For hundreds of years there have been reports of animals falling from the sky like this. Maybe this is why we say "it's raining cats and dogs" when we're talking about a very heavy fall of rain, though there hasn't been any reports of cats or dogs coming down in the rain. Frogs, toads, rats, mice, fish, shellfish, snails, worms, lizards, snakes and even alligators have all been seen coming down out of the sky.

In 1834 a Pennsylvania newspaper reported that a large number of mussels had fallen into a prison yard. The prisoners were very pleased, and quickly opened the mussels and ate them.

These reports of raining animals are strange and hard to believe. What is also strange is that these creatures landed lightly and were not hurt by their falls.

Not every creature to have fallen in this way has been alive. At a factory in India in 1830 people saw what they thought was a flock of birds flying down fast toward the ground. This turned out to be a shower of large fish and they were all dead. Some were fresh, some were rotten and smelly, and some had no heads.

Often these falls from the sky happen when it is raining hard, but sometimes animals come out of a clear sky.

How does it happen? Could a whirlwind pick up some frogs from a pond and later drop them on a street? Maybe, but a whirlwind wouldn't take only one sort of animal. It would take fish and mud and pond weed too. So what is the answer? Do you know?