Resident of a remote town in the Australian outback were shocked to see fish raining down from the sky recently.
The unusual weather event occurred in Lajamanu, population 606, a small community in Australia”s Northern Territory situated on the border of the Tanami Desert.
Townspeople described being stunned when fish began falling on the town during a rainstorm.
“We’ve seen a big storm heading up to my community and we thought it was just rain,” Lajamanu resident and Central Desert councillor Andrew Johnson Japanangka told Australian broadcaster ABC. “But when the rain started falling we”ve seen fish falling down as well.”
Japanangka described witnessing live fish raining from the sky about the “size of two fingers.”
“Some are still hanging around in the community in a puddle of water,” he said. “Children are picking them up and keeping them in a bottle or a jar.”
Oddly, the community has experienced the extremely weird weather phenomenon several times in the past.
Fish raining from the sky was reported in the town as recently as 2010 and also in 2004, and was first noted in 1974.
Japanangka said that the fish rain never ceased to amaze him, according to the outlet.
“We saw some free-falling down to the ground. And some falling onto the roof,” he said. “It was the most amazing thing we’ve ever seen.”
Weather experts pin the cause of the fish rain on strong upward winds, such as tornados, that suck up wildlife from rivers and release them hundreds of miles away.
Queensland Museum fish expert Jeff Johnson told ABC that the fish that fell in Lajamanu were spangled perch, a common fish species in Australia.
He said it was unusual that such a large fish would be sucked up into the air.
“They are a relatively large fish and they’re not able to be drawn up out of the water and held up in the sky for very long,” he said. “But clearly that’s what has happened.”
He noted that the number of fish rain occurrences in Australia was increasing.
“I think next time it rains you just need to be out there with a net, catching the fish as they fall, and properly document it,” he said.
