Falls of fishes are few and far between these days, but a splendid example happened on May 17, 1996. The incident occurred in Hatfield, England, at about 6:30 p.m., as Mrs. Ruth Harnett and her husband David were hurrying to unload the weekly shopping. It was not raining and the air became suddenly very chilly. Hearing a loud thump on her van’s roof, Ruth was surprised to see a modest-sized fish. Looking up
into the cloudy sky, she saw a second fish heading towards her. It hit the van’s hood.
“I looked around, thinking it was kids mucking about,” said Ruth. “Then three more fishes dropped in my garden and I realized they were falling from the sky.” She called David, who was inside the house. “As he came out, I looked up again, which was a big mistake. I was bombarded with fish and one hit me in the face.” Some local children came running up laughing and they all stood in wonder as about 20 more fish
plummeted down.
They were thought to be young roach, common rudd or dab and weighed four pound altogether. Although they were dead, the fish seemed fresh and warm to the touch, as though heated by the sun in their aerial travels. This was the second time in living memory that Ruth’s family had experienced this strange phenomenon. “I remember as a child my father telling me that his father was caught in a shower of fish and frogs near Welwyn Garden City, just seven miles away, about 60 years ago.”
Strange Days #2, The Year in Weirdness (New York: Cader Books, 1997), 85. See also, Elliot, K., “Dead roach society”, in The Independent (2 June 1996).
Accessed 23 November 2010: www.independent.co.uk