Do fish ever really rain from the sky?

When studying weather phenomena, it's a good idea to assume -- at least at the outset -- that whatever bizarre event has been reported is probably real. Because although it seems hard to embrace the idea of, say, St. Elmo's fire or crimson rains, the truth is that they exist. As do balls of lighting . And blue moons. And pigs flying [source: Thompson].

豚が飛ぶことができると言うのはおそらく完全に公平ではないので、さて、バックアップしましょう。もちろん、竜巻のような渦に巻き込まれて空中を航行している場合を除きます。技術的には、気象現象のために空飛ぶ豚が見られます。同じように、魚は本当に空から雨が降っていると確信を持って言えます。科学者たちは長い間、ウォータースパウト（水域に形成されるツイスターのような渦）が魚やカエルの群れを拾い上げ、スパウトが岸にぶつかって消えるときにそれらを陸に落とす可能性があると考えてきました[出典：米国議会図書館議会]。

That would explain the many sightings of tadpoles, fish or frogs "raining" from the sky in Australia, Japan and the United States, to name a few places where it has reportedly happened. But let's put our blind faith in weather phenomena on hold and question, for a moment, why there would be only one species of animal in waterspout rain? And why has no one actually seen the waterspout hypothesis in action, if it's true [source: Wilkins]? Perhaps it's due to the uniformity of the size and shape of each species; frogs or fish would fall in the same spot because they're similar weight, for instance [source: Library of Congress].

Not convincing? Eh, perhaps not. Let's also keep in mind that when we see a bunch of dead fish on the ground, our first instinct might be to look up at the sky -- when we should be looking down. It's possible that instead of seeing the aftermath of carp clouds, people who have reported bunches of terrestrial fish are actually seeing the washed-up carcasses of fish or amphibians that have been pushed up -- through sewer systems or even underground rivers -- during heavy storms [source: Wilkins].

Flying fish, frogs or pigs all sound kind of scary. But let's just be grateful that we don't often see what one German artist depicted in 1680: a horrifying scene of rats raining down on a presumably very unhappy man during a particularly fierce rainstorm [source: Francisci]. I'd take the shower of trout any day.

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