Fish Rain in Ethiopia

Fortean strangeness is off to a good start this year in Ethiopia.  According to the Ethiopian Herald, a rain of fish fell on the town of Dire Dawa in the Eastern part of the country.

The story made the front page of the paper on Feb 2nd.  According to the report, the fish rain occurred the previous Sunday, Jan 31st, surprising the town's residents.  The unusual event was treated as a blessing from God by residents of Dire Dawa who quickly went out to gather up the fish.

Mr. Efrem Mamo, a scholar from Haromaya University's Department of Metrology, stated that the fish rain was a result of heavy winds and ocean currents combining to snap fish up out of the water and carry them over land.  He says that a similar incident occurred in Hawasa, Ethiopia ten years previously.

Other scientists frequently site "tornadoic waterspouts" that transport animals such as fish and frogs over vast distances before depositing them on land.

One of the flaws with this theory is that such falls inevitably contain one specific species.  If random winds were to snap up sections of water, logic dictates that the falls would contain a sampling of animals from the original location.