Has the phenomenon of ''raining fish'' been explained yet? I heard scientists still find this inexplicable. Is this true?

Well... sure...

So look, if you ever experience the very real and possible phenomena of this type of thing in real life, in which actual fish are falling down from the sky all around you, and all upon you...

Then ya... it's gonna freak you the f'ck out!

How could it not?!

It will, at least briefly, have even the most hardened atheist having momentary visions of God!?


But... the thing is:

Lots of natural Earthly phenomena will freak you out to this level, and some will freak you out well beyond this!

In this case, the answer most likely lies simply in swirling atmospheric vortecies (aka: tornadoes and water spouts), that seasonally, once in a while, pick up debris from point A, and then deposit/dump that debris down at point B, in which in this particular case, fish can be part of that debris if the event occurs over water.

As you'll note in the article you linked to, the phenomena is most certainly associated with STORMY meteorological events.


FURTHER...

You also need to keep in mind, that we humans have a huge talent for over-dramatic portrayals of interesting life events we experience!

IE: fishermen will almost always exaggerate the size of that fish they reeled in!

I guess you could say they are "lying". But I think they're just being normal creative humans tamping into our need/urge for fun drama in terms of story telling!

Or, in another example: a HUGE massive mega local flood, suddenly becomes exaggerated even further in the human mind, to the point in which an entire planet-wide-wrath-of-God dramatic flood takes place! The entire planet of Earth is suddenly transformed into a water world, and turned into the story of Noah's Ark!


And so likewise, the link you provided for the Honduran town, most probably experiences some seasonal twisters or water spouts, now and then...

This then gets exaggerated to a twice yearly event with fish falling from the sky.

But in reality, this actual event might happen far less frequently then twice per year. Maybe?

But sure, if it actually does happen like clock work as they claim, TWICE per year, then atmospheric scientists should absolutely TOTALLY be there for the next event of falling fish from the sky!

At which point this place would become insanely famous, and people around the world would flock there for the twice yearly event.

Which would inject a lot of tourist dollars into the local economy.

But is that happening? Are people flocking there... Not really. Probably because it doesn't happen quite as often like clock work, as people claim. Sure it happens, but just not as frequently as people might lead you to believe.


But hey:

I would personally be VERY happy if those people prove me wrong about that!

Because then ya: I'm totally down for a tourist trip to witness fish falling from the sky!


On another tangent note:

Also keep in mind that in the North of this location, in North America, fish-seeding planes exist, that actually REGULARLY drop a huge whack of squirming live fish from the sky, to re-seed lakes with various natural fish species.

So... that's probably something else to research about this location just to rule it out: whether or not twice per year fish-seeding aircraft in that region drop live fish into the local environment maybe?

Probably not, but still a question worth looking into.

/r/AskPhysics Thread