Alien Squid? Flying Frogs?

     A Korean fisherman, trolling off the coast of the Falkland Islands, was knocked unconscious by a single frozen squid that fell from the sky and knocked him on the head. Why was there a squid in the sky? Where did this squid come from? Why was it frozen? This is just one example of weird rain.

     Weird rain is one of the more bizarre - and still largely unexplained - phenomena that is periodically reported from all corners of the globe. There have been accounts of frog rain, fish rain, squid rain, worm rain, even alligator rain. One possible explanation for these odd occurrences is that a tornado or whirlwind picked up the animals from a shallow body of water and carried them (sometimes for hundreds of miles) before dropping them on a bewildered populace. This explanation has yet to be proved, and it can't account for most of the documented incidents listed below. Another explanation is that aliens are returning the animals they have used for experiments back to the areas in which they were captured.

     Here are some of the more unusual cases, out of the thousands of reports over the years, that defy all rational explanation:

· 1841: The American Journal of Science confirmed a shower of blood, fat and muscle tissue that fell on a tobacco farm near Lebanon, Tennessee in August. Field workers, who actually experienced this weird shower, said they heard a rattling noise and saw "drops of blood...fell from a red cloud which was flying over."
· 1861: Singapore reported a rain of fish following an earthquake.
· 1869: J. Hudson's farm in Los Nietos Township, California endured a rain of flesh and blood for three minutes and covered several acres.
· 1873: Scientific American reported that Kansas City, Missouri was blanketed with frogs that dropped from the sky during a storm.
· 1877: The New York Times reported that several one-foot-long alligators fell on J. L. Smith's farm in South Carolina. They landed, unharmed, and started crawling around.
· 1881: A thunderstorm in Worcester, England, brought down tons of periwinkles and hermit crabs.
· 1890: Popular Science News reported that blood rained down on Messignadi, Calabria in Italy - bird's blood. It was speculated that the birds were somehow torn apart by violent winds, although there were no such winds at the time. No other parts of the bird were found.
· 1901: Minneapolis, Minnesota was pelted with frogs and toads in July. 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."
· 1948: Bournemouth, England golfers received a shower of herring.
· 1956: In an otherwise clear sky in Chilatchee, Alabama, a woman and her husband watched as a small dark cloud formed in the sky. When it was overhead, the cloud released its contents: rain, catfish, bass and bream - all of the fish alive. The dark cloud had turned to white, and then dispersed.
· 1966: Father Leonard Bourne was dashing through 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.
· 1981: One morning in May the citizens of Naphlion, Greece, awoke to find small green frogs falling from the sky. The Greek Meteorological Institute surmised they were picked up by a strong wind. The species of frog was native to North Africa.

· 1982 to 1986: Kernels of corn rained down on several houses in Evans, Colorado - tons of it, according to Gary Bryan, one of the residents. Oddly, there were no cornfields in the area that might account for the phenomenon.
· 1989: Ipswich, Australia’s Harold and Degen's front lawn was covered with about 800 sardines that rained from above during a light shower.
· 1995: Reports of Fortean Times Online from claim Nellie Straw of Sheffield, England, was driving through Scotland on holiday with her family when they encountered a severe storm dropping rain and hundreds of frogs.
· 1996: In November, a town in southern Tasmania was slimed with white-clear jelly-like substances on their property. Apparently, it had rained either fish eggs or baby jellyfish.
· 2001: In July, red rain fell on Kerala, India. At first it was thought that a meteor was responsible for the strange-colored rain, but an analysis showed that the water was filled with unexplained fungal spores.
· 2001: In August, Wichita, Kansas news reports stated that "thousands of dried corn leaves fell over east Wichita - from about Central Avenue to 37th Street North, along Woodlawn Boulevard and on east - each about 20 to 30 inches long."

   Is this all just a strange, natural phenomenon? Are aliens playing tricks on us? Is the sky simply falling? Will we ever find out? Life is messy, inconsistent, and it's seldom when anything ever really gets resolved.