--- title: Animals like Fish and Frogs Have Actually Rained from the Sky description: Modern Farmer magazine reports that animals have actually rained from the sky, including fish, frogs, and snakes. Sharknados, not so much. canonical: https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-18T18:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:54.650Z og:title: A History of Animals Raining From the Sky og:description: We're going to need better umbrellas og:url: https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b1c3575099d5725/698685fed0b6f2e7ea30345e/fishrain_time.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: fishrain_time og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A History of Animals Raining From the Sky twitter:description: We're going to need better umbrellas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b1c3575099d5725/698685fed0b6f2e7ea30345e/fishrain_time.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Animals Have Actually Rained from the Sky by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 18, 2014 6:00 PM UTC  \[Duncan\] / Flickr by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 18, 2014 6:00 PM UTC _Modern Farmer_, our generation’s foremost chronicler of animal weirdness and the current host of a [live pig webcam](http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/hamcam/), reports that animals raining from the sky is a thing that has [actually happened](http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/things-fall-sky/). Pick your favorite creature, and it’s pretty likely it has fallen like rain from the clouds. Fish are a classic choice, of course, but the list goes on, Justin Nobel writes: --- > “” --- In Marksville, Louisiana in 1947, fish even fell out of a clear sky, with various species ranging from two to nine inches in length. But why does this bizarre meteorological phenomenon actually happen? _Modern Farmer_ tests a variety of hypotheses, including powerful tornados and waterspouts, a vortex that forms over a body of water and sucks up the water along with it, perhaps including any stray fish or frogs. “It seems very reasonable that they could be flung airborne and carried some distance away,” says University of Georgia scientist John Knox. Sharknados, however, are still completely impossible. Unless, one expert explains, global warming causes heavier rainfall and stronger storms. Uh oh. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/"},"headline":"Animals Have Actually Rained from the Sky","datePublished":"2014-03-18T18:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:54.650Z","description":"We're going to need better umbrellas","url":"https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/","keywords":["Newsfeed","weather","Fishing","sharknado","natural disaster","Tornadoes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b1c3575099d5725/698685fed0b6f2e7ea30345e/fishrain_time.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b1c3575099d5725/698685fed0b6f2e7ea30345e/fishrain_time.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fishrain_time","caption":"","creditText":"[Duncan] / Flickr","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/28894/animals-have-actually-rained-from-the-sky/","name":"Animals Have Actually Rained from the Sky"}}]}] ```