The whole fish/frogs falling from the sky thing - Theories!

Then that is a windstorm of frogs, not a rain of frogs, if the frogs are being carried by air currents and not precipitated.

When a cow is dropped by a twister, is that cow rain?

Shows the importance of detaching scientific potential from urban myths.

I also saw a few Skepticism pages that had good answers on this one, as well.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
Then that is a windstorm of frogs, not a rain of frogs, if the frogs are being carried by air currents and not precipitated.

you're grasping for straws here MA. when a windstorm, tornado, whatever sucks frogs up in the air, they fall from the sky thus a rain of frogs. i can't believe we're having an argument about frogs falling from the sky. how pathetic are we?

Aegis

I will restate for your benefit what I have said.

1. See Magnolia for a vision of what it would be like to rain frogs.

2. That has never happened. It is an urban myth.

3. Look at how apparent 'scientific knowledge' is often used in the formation and perpetuation of urban myths.

That is my whole point. No straws for clutching.

I agree, there is little point in discussing raining frogs, but I was attempting to bring something else to it.

Some people are indeed sensitive about frogs. Look at the "Boiling Frogs" topic too.

Why not you move onto carp, instead?

MA, it isn't an urban myth. It happens. Frogs, fish, turtles, one I heard of was rabbits(a huge a$$ rabbit ranch place was hit by a tornado during a storm, 17 miles away the rabbits rained down, no survivors) can be picked up by tornados and such. And whoever said well skydivers..... ever seen a video with a tornado picking up semitrucks at a truck stop and chucking them a good 3-4 hundred yards? If the trucks were frogs, how far would they have gone?

People, it isn't a myth, it is real. Just like earthquakes are real. People didn't believe they existed, for the earth would never move, that is just bull. Ahem, need I remind you of the Grand Maris earhtquake? Sent the Mississippi backwards, rang bells in Philly, china fell and was broken in Denver, so forth.

Ok, sorry about the confusion MA, you are forgiven for doing nothing . Just a misinterpretation on my part.

I do gather though that you do not believe in this even occuring. That is fine. Anyone could believe anything they want, I could believe that dirt is really made up of tiny homicidal hampsters that are in comas if I wanted to. It may be scientifically disproven, but I could still believe it.

Likewise is your belief - You do not believe that fish frogs and toads fall from the sky, although eyewitness accounts and physical evidence have been collected. I will post some links now.

www.conservation.state.mo.us...

www.christiananswers.net...

www.earthsky.com...

news.bbc.co.uk...

paranormal.about.com...

Just to show documented events.

[Edited on 30-7-2003 by Megalodon]

Mega

Great links, interesting stories.

I would link you to another page which says exactly what a 'trained skeptic' is supposed to say about raining frogs stories, but I've lost it and in my newfound wisdom and as part of a fellow member's copyright support campaign I am on a self-imposed link ban until William further clarifies the ATS Terms & Rules as far as copyright is concerned...

Let me instead, draw a 'line in the sand' for frogs to hop across on just one of the stories in the last website you've listed:

"Minneapolis, Minnesota was pelted with frogs and toads in July, 1901. A news item stated: "When the storm was at its highest... there appeared as if descending directly from the sky a huge green mass. Then followed a peculiar patter, unlike that of rain or hail. When the storm abated the people found, three inches deep and covering an area of more than four blocks, a collection of a most striking variety of frogs... so thick in some places [that] travel was impossible."

In that case, I don't give this account credence. It must cross my personal threshold somehow. It is similar to (obviously not on as large a scale as) the Magnolia episode, maybe the one the movie's account came from.

Taking the filter off for a moment, I would ask this... why were eyewitness accounts of events happening on the morning of and soon after the 9/11 suicide attacks (events which don't support the official conspiracy story) given such little coverage?


That's just me, though.

well... A chinese fishing boat was sunk by a cow that fell from the clear blue sky.

Ever hear about a place in Europe? A zoo was struck by a tornado. It wasn't raining cats and dogs, it was raining lions and tigers and bears and elephants and so forth OH MY!

No humans were injured, but most of the animals that rained down were killed on impact or later on to put them out of their misery and pain.

James

That is the only argument I have ever heard against open range zoos.

well... A chinese fishing boat was sunk by a cow that fell from the clear blue sky.

This actually sounds familiar....

Looks like its happened again, this time fish falling in Oregan...

www.oregonlive.com.../base/sports/1147488929207760.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

Alas no pics I think they are trying to say that birds dropped them!

McP.

this is a real event and not a urban myth that does happen on rare occasions.

"imagine a skydiver falling from a plane, does he/she remain in clouds for sometime,no."

if the skydiver was picked up by a tornado he sure would be "raining" down somewhere away from his origional location.

This occurs when tornados (water spouts?) pick up fish and whatnot over the ocean/lake, pull them up into the atomosphere and as it loses strength inland they fall from the sky. This was at one time interpreted by people to be a sign from God , when it is really a natural act of nature (well nature could technically be considered as "God" too!)

I agree and I'm what you would call a hard core skeptic of a great many things. This has happened and has been documented many times over fields full of fish and other creatures. the best possible and probable explanation is a water spouts and tornado's sucking things up and launching them. They could launch fish etc really far like they launch other objects i mean if a tornado can lodge a straw into a 2x4 or a car hundreds of meters it is a very definate possibility that this is most likely the cause of such events.

"Maybe their parachutes failed to open." -Fox Mulder

is it true that the frogs falling in the streets of china is referenced in the bible?

not a myth anymore - happend in Slovakia yesterday

In Ohio we get this quite frequently with toads/frogs. Dayton gets hit with a lot of tornadoes and outside of the city limits is mostly marshy swampland. Tornadoes carry a lot of sea life, but the frogs are most common because they sit at the surface of the water as opposed to being submerged.