You may have heard the expression that it rains cats and dogs? It probably won’t happen, but have you heard of the weather phenomenon that it rains fish?
It happened recently in the small town of Lajamanu in Australia.
– We saw that a big storm was coming towards the city, and we thought it was just going to rain. When the rain came, fish also fell from the sky, says the local desert municipality director Andrew Johnson Japanangka to the Australian ABC News.
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However, this is not the first time that the special weather phenomenon has happened in the small Australian town.
It has also rained fish in Lajamanu in 2010, 2004 and in 1974.
Meteorologists and fishing experts believe that the weather phenomenon can occur as a result of vertical winds, such as tornadoes, which suck up both water and fish from rivers and transport them hundreds of kilometers away.
Live fish
Japanangka tells the Australian media that the fish were as big as at least two fingers and that they were alive when they fell to the ground.
– Some of the fish still live in small ponds on the street. Several children have picked up the fish to keep them in a bottle or tub, he says.
Although Japanangka has witnessed the weather phenomenon before, he is equally surprised every time it has happened.
– We saw some fish fall to the ground. Others fell on the roof. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve seen. I see it as a gift from God, he says.
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– Bring fishing nets
The weather phenomenon is said to have also occurred in other cities in Australia. In 2020, it also rained fish in the town of Yowah in Queensland, Australia, according to ABC Australia.
The species of fish that fell into the city was the Australian spangled perch, which is a species of ray-finned fish. It is one of the most common freshwater fish species in Australia. They can grow up to 25 centimeters long, but they are usually around 15 centimeters.
Michael Hammer, fisheries curator at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), previously researched the phenomenon.
He tells ABC News that it is not unusual for fish to rain down alive, if they are not lifted too high into the atmosphere.
Nevertheless, he admits that it is unusual for the fish to be as large as those that rained down in Lajamanu.
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– These are relatively large fish and they cannot have been pulled up from the water and transported in the air for a long time. But that is clearly what has happened, he says.
Hammer believes that the weather phenomenon can occur in several places in Australia.
– Next time it rains, you should take a fishing net with you, he says.
