Fish Rained Down on One Texas City to Close Out 2021

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If you've been in Lubbock long enough, you know all about the weather phenomenon known as mud rain. When it rains mud in Lubbock, the only people happy about the situation are the ones who own car washes. But I think I'll take raining mud over what happened in Texarkana, Texas last Wednesday.

On December 29th, a fairly uncommon, but not unheard of event, happened in several places across Texarkana. According to the Texarkana Police Department, fish fell from the sky in several areas across of the city.

Local citizens and the police were so stunned by the event that they took to Facebook to let everyone know what was going on and to ask people to post their own pictures of fish that had fallen from the sky. The police did explain that "animal rain" is something that has occurred before, just not in their city.

Animal rain is a phenomenon that occurs when small water animals like frogs, crabs, and small fish are swept up in waterspouts or drafts that occur on the surface of the earth. They are then rained down at the same time as the rain.

According to CNN, updrafts can pick up animals like birds, bats, frogs and snakes because they're more powerful than a waterspout.

Most residents in Texarkana weren't bothered by the weather event, with one resident, Tim Brigham, telling a CNN affiliate that he thought it was "pretty cool":

Tim Brigham told CNN affiliate KSLA he thought it was "pretty cool" to see tiny fish falling from the sky and useful, too -- he said he "started to get me a bucket and pick them up for fishing bait." The employees of Discount Wheel and Tire stepped away from the tires and instead started cleaning up their parking lot's surprise seafood platter.

2017 was the last time a report about fish falling from the sky made news in the United States. In 2017, an elementary school in California reported that more than 100 fish fell onto their property.