Animal rain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rain of fish in Singapore in the description of locals

The term animal rain describes a rare meteorological phenomenon in which animals (often flightless) "rain" from the sky. There are historical reports and modern evidence from many countries around the world. One hypothesis that was offered to explain the phenomenon is that strong winds over water can be able to absorb living things such as fish or frogs and transport them several kilometers. However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been observed or scientifically verified.

The animals that appear to rain from the sky most often are fish, frogs, and birds (in that order). Sometimes the animals survive the fall, which, especially in the case of fish, indicates that the transport will only be of a relatively short duration. Several witnesses of frog rain describe the animals shortly after the event as frightened, but healthy and with relatively normal behavior. In some events, however, the animals are frozen or even completely covered with ice. There are also examples in which the precipitation did not consist of whole animals but of shredded body parts. Many cases occur immediately after storms with high winds and especially in connection with tornadoes .

There are also unconfirmed cases in which animals in good weather and in the absence of strong winds or waterspouts shall be rained down.

Animal rain (as well as rain of blood or blood-like material and similar anomalies) plays a central role in the epistemological writings of Charles Fort , especially in his book The Book of the Damned (German The Book of the Damned ). Fort collected reports of such events and used them as both evidence and metaphor for an attack on the scientific method.

The etymological origin of the English idiom "It rains cats and dogs" is uncertain and there are no proven references to the animal rain phenomenon.

Explanations

Tornadoes can lift animals into the air and transport them several kilometers

The French physicist André-Marie Ampère was one of the first scientists to seriously study animal rain. His hypothesis of explaining frog rain was eventually refined by other scientists. In a lecture to the Société des sciences naturelles , Ampère suggested that frogs and toads occasionally roam the landscape in large numbers and that violent winds could pick them up and transport them over great distances.

A more recent scientific explanation was developed on the basis of waterspouts. These tornadoes over water are capable of capturing objects and animals, lifting them into the air and lifting them to relatively great heights. The winches are then able to transport the animals over relatively long distances and still set them down again in a locally concentrated manner. More precisely, some tornadoes are able to completely soak up the contents of a pond and drop the water with the animals at some distance in the form of an animal rain.

This hypothesis is supported by the type of animals found (they are mostly small, light water inhabitants), and it also coincides with the observation that a rain of animals is often preceded by a storm. However, the theory does not explain why such incidents often affect a single species rather than a group of species of similar size that are common in the same area.

Doppler radar image shows the collision of a group of bats in flight with a thunderstorm over Texas. The red color shows the animals flying in the storm.

In the case of bird rain, it is conceivable, especially during bird migration , that a swarm in flight gets caught in a storm. The illustration to the right shows a swarm of bats caught in a thunderstorm in Texas. The bats are in the red zone of air masses moving away from the radar station. In the picture on the right, they get caught in a thunderstorm cell with a rotating updraft (green), a so-called super cell . Such events can easily occur during bird flight.

At times reports of exceptional fishing rains have been scientifically challenged. An example is a rain of fish that took place in Singapore in 1861. French naturalist Francis de La Porte de Castelnau explained that the supposed rain occurred during a migration of frog rock , which is able to move from one puddle to another overland. He argued that the appearance of the fish on the ground immediately after a rain is easy to explain, since these animals usually moved after rain and on a damp surface.

Events

The following list represents a selection of animal rain events:

fishes

Fish rain near Heilsbronn , woodcut from 1555

Frogs and toads

Other

In literature and pop culture

  • Animal rain is fairly common in Terry Pratchett's Discworld . The explanation is magical weather. Ramtops, a small village in the mountains, runs a successful fish factory due to regular rainfall from fish inland. Several events are extolled in the Ommnian religion when religious figures were saved by miraculous rains of animals. One of them consisted of an elephant. Other events included bed frames, cakes, and canned sardines.
  • In Kafka on the beach of Haruki Murakami fish falling from the sky.
  • In the Red Dwarf episode Confidence and Paranoia, it rains fish in Lister's sleeping quarters.
  • In the movie Magnolia (1999) it rains big frogs.
  • In the computer role-playing game Oblivion , the player can take on an optional task. He is said to panic the superstitious villagers. As a sign of a prophecy, he has to rain flaming dogs from heaven.
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams , a sperm whale and a petunia pot are created high above the planet Magrathea. The whale has only a few moments to study its new identity and the meaning of its existence as it rushes towards its unfortunate end on the surface of Magrathea. The pot of petunias had already gone through similar fatal situations.
  • The character of Cris Johnson in the film Next reports that fish eggs were rehydrated after they had evaporated from the sea near Denmark. This resulted in a rain of fish.
  • The satirical almanac More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman references several events associated with animal rain.
  • The short story rainy season (English Rainy Season ) by Stephen King from the collection Nightmares tells of frogs with sharp teeth that fall from the sky.
  • At the end of Wonderful World (2010), Ben Singer (played by Matthew Broderick ) experiences a rain of fish in Senegal . His close friend Ibu had previously told him about the phenomenon in the film.
  • A fish falling from the sky plays a key role in Andrew Bovell's play At the End of the Rain .
  • A rain of fish occurs in the television series Fargo .
  • In the movies Sharknado , Sharknado 2 and Sharknado 3, it rains sharks when hurricanes occur.
  • The novel Summer Knight ( "Feenzorn") by Jim Butcher begins with a toad rain.

"It's raining cats and dogs"

An English caricature from the 19th century illustrates the sentence "It's raining cats and dogs" (and also "pitchforks")

The English idiom It is raining cats and dogs (German: "It rains cats and dogs") describes a particularly heavy rain. The etymological origin of the sentence is unknown and cannot be safely traced back to animal rain. This sentence - sometimes with polecats instead of cats - has been handed down since at least the 17th century. A number of rather unlikely popular etymologies were offered to explain the origin:

  • A "statement" widely circulated by e-mail claims that in the thatched farmhouses that were widespread in Europe in the 16th century , animals often sought shelter in the thatched roofs and were washed out in heavy rain. However, there is no evidence to support this claim.
  • The drainage systems of the buildings in 17th century Europe were poor and carcasses that had collected in them could have been washed out during heavy rain. This process is described in Johnathan Swift's poem A Description of a City Shower :
    “Drowned puppies, smelly sprats, everything soaked in mud, / dead cats and beet leaves fall with the tide. " ( " Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud, / Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood. " )
  • "Cats and dogs" ("cats and dogs") could be a corruption of the Greek word katadoupoi . This describes the waterfalls of the Nile, possibly using the old French word catadupe ("waterfall").
  • The Greek affection kata doxa means "contrary to expectation". It is often used for heavy rain, but there is no evidence of any borrowing in the English language.

There may be no logical explanation; the sentence could have been created and used simply because of its meaningless humor, as is also the case with similar expressions (“it's raining pitchforks” and so on).

Numerous languages ​​use similarly bizarre names for heavy rain:

  • Arabic: Kab Min 'Ind el Rab ("it pours from heaven")
  • Afrikaans: ou vrouens met knopkieries reen ("it's raining old women with clubs")
  • Bavarian: it strikes Schuastabuam ("Schusterbuben", see Danish)
  • Bangla: "মুষলধারে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে" - mushaldhare brishti poRchhe ("Raindrops are like clubs")
  • Bosnian: padaju ćuskije (" crowbars ")
  • Danish: det regner skomagerdrenge ("Schusters apprentices")
  • French: il pleut des hallebardes (" halberds "), clous ("nails") or cordes ("ropes")
  • Greek: βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα ("chair legs")
  • Irish: tá sé ag caitheamh sceana gréasaí ("cobbler knife ")
  • Dutch: het regent pijpestelen ("pipe pipes")
  • Dutch (Flemish): het regent oude wijven ("old women") or het regent kattenjongen ("young cats")
  • Norwegian: det regner trollkjerringer ("female trolls")
  • Polish: pada żabami ("frogs")
  • Portuguese: está a chover canivetes ("pocket knife")
  • Romanian: plouă cu broaşte ("frogs")
  • Serbian: padaju sekire ("axes")
  • Spanish: está lloviendo chuzos ("skewers")
  • Czech Republic: padají trakaře ("wheelbarrows")
  • Welsh: mae hi'n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn ("old ladies and sticks")

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Green: How can it rain fish? (How can it rain fish?) In: BBC News Magazine. August 20, 2004, online at BBC.co.uk, accessed December 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ Pluies de crapauds et grenouilles. In: Histoire faune et flore. May 6, 2015, online at France-pittoresque.com, accessed December 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ Orsy Campos Rivas: Lo que la lluvia regala a Yoro. ( Memento from April 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Hablemos online. July 11, 2004, accessed December 19, 2016.
  4. ^ Richard Angwin: It's raining men ... and dogs and cats and fish and frogs. ( Memento of February 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiltshire-Weather. July 15, 2003, accessed December 19, 2016.
  5. ^ Roger Edwards: Bat-eating Supercell. National Weather Service , March 19, 2006, online at NOAA.gov, accessed December 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Francis de La Porte de Castelnau: Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences. 52, 1861, pp. 880-881.
  7. ↑ Certificate of a fishing rain in 1529. In: Archivalia. April 17, 1529, copy in the yearbook of Heilsbronn Monastery. Then printed by Johann Ludwig Hocker: Hailsbronn antiques treasure [...]. Ansbach 1731, p. 92 f. Retrieved February 7, 2017 from Archiv.Twoday.net.
  8. ^ Waldo L. McAtee: Showers of Organic Matter . (PDF) In: Monthly Weather Review . 45, No. 5, May 1917, p. 223. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  9. ^ Rained Fish. AP report in Lowell, Massachusetts Sun May 16, 1900, p. 4.
  10. ^ Greg Forbes: Spooky Weather. ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The Weather Channel. Published on October 27, 2005. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weather.com
  11. ↑ Siberia is getting warmer - minus 43 degrees. Der Tagesspiegel, December 12, 2002, accessed on February 6, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Greece: It's raining fish. taz, the daily newspaper, December 12, 2002, accessed on February 6, 2017 .
  13. ^ Report from India: Fish rain. October 24, 2009.
  14. ↑ Report in news.com.au: It's raining fish in the Northern Territory. February 28, 2010.
  15. ↑ Fish rain in Sri Lanka: It's raining fish! Hallelujah! ( Memento from May 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), br.de, May 7, 2014.
  16. ↑ Danielle Demetriou: Sky 'rains tadpoles' over Japan , Telegraph.co.uk. June 10, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009. 
  17. ↑ Szemtanúk szerint békaeső hullott a településre , szoljon.hu. June 21, 2010. 
  18. ^ Charles Fort: Ch. 4 . In: The Book of the Damned . sacred-texts.com, 1919, pp. 44-46.
  19. ^ Charles Fort: Ch. 4 . In: The Book of the Damned . sacred-texts.com, 1919, p. 48.
  20. ^ Worms Fall from the Sky in Jennings , WAFB Channel 9 . July 7, 2007. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 12, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wafb.com 
  21. ↑ It's Raining Spiders! , Epoch Times . April 6, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2010.  
  22. ↑ Terry Pratchett: The Discworld Companion . Books Britain, 1997, ISBN 0575600306 , p. 319.
  23. ↑ Terry Pratchett: Jingo . Corgi, London 1998, ISBN 055214598X , pp. 252-253.
  24. ↑ Terry Pratchett: Jingo . Corgi, London 1998, ISBN 055214598X , p. 241.
  25. ↑ When It Rains Hungry Sharks - Film Sharknado. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  26. ↑ a b c Anatoly Liberman: Raining Cats and Dogs. In: Word Origins And How We Know Them. March 21, 2007, online at blog.oup.com, accessed January 4, 2017.
  27. ^ Richard Brome: The City Witt: "It will rain dogs and polecats", 1652.
  28. ^ Robert Laurence: Raining cats and dogs. ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 28, 2009, unavailable January 4, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.allaboutstuff.com
  29. ^ Gary Martin: The meaning and origin of the expression: Raining cats and dogs. Online at phrases.org.uk, accessed January 4, 2017.
  30. ↑ Hakro: It's raining cats and dogs. November 4, 2006, online at forum.wordreference.com, accessed January 4, 2017.
  31. ↑ Simon Ager: It's raining cats and dogs. Online at Omniglot.com, accessed January 4, 2017.