Fish Fall From the Sky in India

Baseball has its Oldtimers games. Golf has its Seniors Tour. Dancing with the Stars brings back past champions. Perhaps the Fortean world needs a place for those classic old sightings that keep coming back and baffling many – even when the cause of the event is usually known or easy to explain. The best example of this creatures falling from the sky. While cows, elephants, pythons and other large or strange animals would certainly warrant attention, fish falling from the sky have become more common and even an annual event in some locations. Yet the overnight or sudden appearance of thousands of flopping fish still gets people excited. That was the case this week in India, where yet another classic fish fall was reported.

“According to sources, a resident of Amalapuram captured the video of the “fish rain” at around 4pm and circulated it among his friends.”

Fortean phenomena are a lot more fun now that we have cell phones and social media. The WhatsApp video quickly made it to the Times of India, which interviewed the unnamed videographer from Amalapuram, a town in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh located in the delta of Konaseema, which places it between two tributaries of the Godavari River and the Bay of Bengal. Do you need a bigger hint as to where the fish may have come from? (Photos and video here.)

It’s happened before.

“A meteorologist from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that strong winds of the storms like Cyclone Phethai sometimes carry displaced fish, frogs from the water bodies and drop on the land.”

The news was big enough to be picked up by the Weather Channel, which just happened to have reporters hanging on to lampposts as they covered the (hint alert) Cyclone Phethai,which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on December 17, destroying over 10,000 farm and, even worse, damaging an estimated total of 12,094 mobile towers, which could explain why there was only one video circulating of the fish rain.

While no greater source than the Weather Channel said it, all good Forteans know that there’s still never been scientific observation of fish rising out from a body of water due to a cyclone, waterspout, hurricane or other phenomena – only their falling from the sky or mysteriously appearing on the ground. And it’s often the case that they were brought by flooding, not rain. Still, there are times when there seems to be no weather explanation for falling fish, frogs, snakes and other non-flying creatures. Thus, they continue to be reported.

Stay tuned to Legends of Forteana for future coverage of fish rain, spontaneous human combustion, alien big cats, levitation and much, much more.

Paul Seaburn (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)