Thread: Where Did The Toads Go?
View Single Post
 
Old Jul 17, 2010, 08:27 AM
Anonymous81711
Guest
  
Posts: n/a
Well, I am no Rachel Carson In fact, I am Mandie M(or H, depending if i use my birth or adopted name lol).

But, I can try to explain this to you!

We used to have the same thing. Every spring rain they were everywhere. In fact, we used to stage "save the frogs" rescues at the main intersection in our village - I remember there being at least 50 kids at a time at points, stopping the cars to save the frogs. Luckily because this is such a small town, it was just accepted, and people were very patient about it, and I can even remember police cars being parked nearby to help with the safety of said rescues so that the kids were not stopping cars on their own. If someone was in a truly big hurry, there was a short detour that only took about an extra 30 seconds to drive so I think thats why it was so easily accepted. We would often make signs and everything and the kids would collect all of the toads in the intersection and then let the cars come through. There is a swampy area right beside the intersection, and I suspect thats why we found so many right in that area. I am sure lots of poor toadies were dying in other roads in the village but we focused on the intersection.

The type of frog you are thinking of could be of several varieties, and could in fact, be a frog OR a toad. What state are you located in? This will help me narrow down what you have locally and I can probably point you in the direction of photos of it so you can make an educated guess. Without being there though theres really no way for me to identify, as this phenomenon happens with alot of species, and not even just frogs!

Here is what Wikipedia has on the subject:
Quote:
Raining animals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Rain of fish in Singapore, as described by local inhabitants

Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon, although occurrences have been reported from many countries throughout history. One hypothesis that has been offered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds travelling over water sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles.[1] However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed or scientifically tested.
The animals most likely to drop from the sky in a rainfall are fish, frogs and birds, in that order. Sometimes the animals survive the fall, especially fish, suggesting the animals are dropped shortly after extraction. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event. In some incidents, however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely encased in ice. There are examples where the product of the rain is not intact animals, but shredded body parts. Some cases occur just after storms having strong winds, especially during tornadoes.
However, there have been many unconfirmed cases in which rainfalls of animals have occurred in fair weather and in the absence of strong winds or waterspouts.
Rains of animals (as well as rains of blood or blood-like material, and similar anomalies) play a central role in the epistemological writing of Charles Fort, especially in his first book, The Book of the Damned. Fort collected stories of these events and used them both as evidence and as a metaphor in challenging the claims of scientific explanation.
The English language idiom "it is raining cats and dogs" (As well as its Swiss-German equivalent, "Raining frogs and snakes"), referring to a heavy downpour, is of uncertain etymology, and there is no evidence that it has any connection to the "raining animals" phenomenon.
Contents

[hide]
[edit] Explanations


Tornadoes may lift up animals into the air and deposit them miles away.

French physicist André-Marie Ampčre was among the first scientists to take seriously accounts of raining animals. He tried to explain rains of frogs with a hypothesis that was eventually refined by other scientists. Speaking in front of the Society of Natural Sciences, Ampčre suggested that at times frogs and toads roam the countryside in large numbers, and that the action of violent winds can pick them up and carry them great distances.[2]
More recently, a scientific explanation for the phenomenon has been developed that involves waterspouts. Waterspouts are capable of capturing objects and animals and lifting them into the air. Under this theory, waterspouts or tornados transport animals to relatively high altitudes, carrying them over large distances. The winds are capable of carrying the animals over a relatively wide area and allow them to fall in a concentrated fashion in a localized area.[3] More specifically, some tornadoes can completely suck up a pond, letting the water and animals fall some distance away in the form of a rain of animals.[4]
This hypothesis appears supported by the type of animals in these rains: small and light, usually aquatic.[5] It is also supported by the fact that the rain of animals is often preceded by a storm. However the theory does not account for how all the animals involved in each individual incident would be from only one species, and not a group of similarly-sized animals from a single area.

Doppler Image from Texas showing the collision of a thunderstorm with a group of bats in flight. The color red indicates the animals flying into the storm.

In the case of birds, storms may overcome a flock in flight, especially in times of migration. The image to the right shows an example where a group of bats is overtaken by a thunderstorm.[6]. The image shows how the phenomenon could take place in some cases. In the image, the bats are in the red zone, which corresponds to winds moving away from the radar station, and enter into a mesocyclone associated with a tornado (in green). These events may occur easily with birds in flight. In contrast, it is harder to find a plausible explanation for rains of terrestrial animals; the enigma persists despite scientific studies.
Sometimes, scientists have been incredulous of extraordinary claims of rains of fish. For example, in the case of a rain of fish in Singapore in 1861, French naturalist Francis de Laporte de Castelnau explained that the supposed rain took place during a migration of walking catfish, which are capable of dragging themselves over the land from one puddle to another.[7] Thus, he argued that the appearance of fish on the ground immediately after a rain was easily explained, as these animals usually move over soft ground or after a rain.
[edit] Occurrences

The following list is a selection of examples.
[edit] Fish


1555 engraving of rain of fish

[edit] Frogs and toads

[edit] Others

[edit] In literature and popular culture

  • The Judeo Christian Bible, in the book of Exodus, lists raining frogs as one of the plagues sent by God to encourage the Pharaoh to release the slaves of Egypt.
  • Raining animals are relatively common in Terry Pratchett's Discworld. The explanation given is magical weather. One small village in the mountainous, landlocked Ramtops operates a successful fish cannery due to regular rains of fish.[19] The Ommnian religion includes several accounts of religious figures being saved by miraculous rains of animals, one being an elephant.[20] Other items include bedsteads, cake and tinned sardines.[21]
  • Fish fell from the sky in Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
  • In the Red Dwarf episode Confidence and Paranoia, fish rain in Lister's sleeping quarters.
  • Raining frogs are shown in the 1999 New Line Cinema movie, Magnolia. Frogs, and a gun, raining down causing havoc on drivers and commuters alike.
  • In the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the player can do an optional quest given by Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, which involves playing a prank on a small, peaceful-yet-superstitious village. The player is told to perform certain actions that will fulfill a prophecy within the village that is believed to herald the end of the world, thus causing all of the villagers to panic. The final event foretold in the prophecy is flaming dogs raining from the sky, which, unlike the other events of the prophecy, is achieved by the Daedra Lord himself and his powers.
  • A sperm whale and a bowl of petunias were called into existence above the alien planet Magrathea in Douglas Adams' novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The whale had only moments to come to terms with its new identity and purpose during the ultimately fatal plummet to Magrathea's surface. The bowl of petunias had been in similar situations before.
  • The character Cris Johnson in the film Next relates as fact that fish eggs were re-hydrated after being evaporated from the ocean near Denmark, resulting in a rain of fish.
  • John Hodgman's satirical almanac More Information Than You Require makes references to multiple events involving raining animals.
  • The short story 'Rainy Season' by Stephen King from the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes is about frogs with sharp teeth falling from the sky.
  • In the 2010 film, Wonderful World, Ben Singer (played by Matthew Broderick), experiences raining fish at the end of the film, while in Senegal. His close friend Ibu had told him about the phenomenon earlier in the film.
[edit] "Raining cats and dogs"


A 19th-century English cartoon illustrating the phrase "it is raining cats and dogs" (and "pitchforks" too)

The English idiom "it is raining cats and dogs", used to describe an especially heavy rain, is of unknown etymology, and is not necessarily related to the "raining animals" phenomenon.[22] The phrase (with "polecats" instead of "cats") was used at least since the 17th century.[23][24] A number of improbable folk etymologies have been put forward to explain the phrase,[25] for example:
  • An "explanation" widely circulated by email claimed that in 16th-century Europe when peasant homes were commonly thatched, animals could crawl into the thatch and find shelter from the elements, and would fall out during heavy rain. However, there seems to be no evidence in support of either assertion.[26]
  • Drainage systems on buildings in 17th century Europe were poor, and may have disgorged their contents during heavy showers, including the corpses of any animals that had accumulated in them. This occurrence is documented in Johnathan Swift's 1710 poem 'Description of a City Shower', in which he describes "Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,/Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood."
  • "Cats and dogs" may be a corruption of the Greek word Katadoupoi, referring to the waterfalls on the Nile,[22] possibly through the old French word catadupe ("waterfall").
  • The Greek phrase "kata doksa", which means "contrary to expectation" is often applied to heavy rain, but there is no evidence to support the theory that it was borrowed by English speakers.[22]
There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value, like other equivalent English expressions ("it is raining pitchforks", "hammer handles", etc.).
Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain:[27][28]
  • French: il pleut des hallebardes ("it is raining halberds"), clous ("nails"), or cordes ("ropes")
  • Afrikaans: ou vrouens met knopkieries reen ("old women with clubs")
  • Czech: padají trakaře ("wheelbarrows")
  • Danish: det regner skomagerdrenge ("shoemakers' apprentices")
  • Dutch: het regent pijpestelen ("pipe stems")
  • Dutch (Flemish): het regent oude wijven ("old women")
  • Dutch (Flemish): het regent kattenjongen ("kittens")
  • German: junge Hunde ("young dogs")
  • Greek: βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα ("chair legs")
  • Irish: tá sé ag caitheamh sceana gréasaí ("cobblers knives")
  • Norwegian: det regner trollkjerringer ("she-trolls")
  • Polish: pada żabami ("frogs")
  • Portuguese: está a chover canivetes ("penknives")
  • Romanian: plouă cu broaşte ("frogs")
  • Spanish: está lloviendo chuzos ("shortpikes")
  • Serbian: padaju sekire ("axes")
  • Bosnian: padaju ćuskije ("crowbars").
  • Welsh: mae hi'n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn ("old ladies and sticks")
  • Bangla: "মুষলধারে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে" "mushaldhare brishti poRchhe" ("rain drops are like clubs)
[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ How can it rain fish?
  2. ^ «Les pluies de crapauds» (French).
  3. ^ Supernatural World uses this theory to explain a rain of fishes in Norfolk on August 8, 2000.
  4. ^ Orsy Campos Rivas includes this explanation in the article Lo que la lluvia regala a Yoro, which discusses a rain of fishes that occurs annually in Honduras. Hablemos online(Spanish)
  5. ^ Angwin, Richard Wiltshire weather - BBC, July 15, 2003
  6. ^ Bat-eating Supercell, National Weather Service, (March 19, 2006).
  7. ^ Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 52:880-81, 1861 (French).
  8. ^ McAtee, Waldo L. (May 1917). "Showers of Organic Matter". Monthly Weather Review 45 (5): 223. http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/...45-05-0217.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  9. ^ "Rained Fish", AP report in the Lowell (Mass.) Sun, May 16, 1900, p4
  10. ^ "Fish Rain", reported in the India : [1], Oct 24, 2009
  11. ^ "It's raining fish in Northern Territory", reported in news.com.au : [2], February 28, 2010
  12. ^ Greg Forbes. Spooky Weather. The Weather Channel. Posted: October 27, 2005
  13. ^ Demetriou, Danielle (2009-06-10). "Sky 'rains tadpoles' over Japan". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ver-Japan.html. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  14. ^ "Szemtanúk szerint békaeső hullott a településre". szoljon.hu. 2010-06-21. http://szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szoln...pulesre-312385. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  15. ^ Fort, Charles (1919). "Ch. 4". The Book of the Damned. sacred-texts.com. pp. 44–6. http://www.sacred-texts.com/fort/damn/damn04.htm.
  16. ^ Fort, Charles (1919). "Ch. 4". The Book of the Damned. sacred-texts.com. p. 48. http://www.sacred-texts.com/fort/damn/damn04.htm.
  17. ^ "Worms Fall from the Sky in Jennings". WAFB Channel 9. 7 July 2007. http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=6771977. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
  18. ^ "It's Raining Spiders!". Epoch Times. 6 April 2007. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-12/60694.html. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  19. ^ Pratchett, Terry (1997). The Discworld Companion. Books Britain. p. 319. ISBN 0575600306.
  20. ^ Pratchett, Terry (1998). Jingo. London: Corgi. pp. 252–3. ISBN 055214598X.
  21. ^ Pratchett, Terry (1998). Jingo. London: Corgi. p. 241. ISBN 055214598X.
  22. ^ a b c Raining Cats and Dogs, Anatoly Liberman
  23. ^ Richard Brome (1652), The City Witt: "It shall rain dogs and polecats."
  24. ^ Robert Laurence, Raining Cats And Dogs. Accessed on 2009-07-28.
  25. ^ "Life in the 1500s". Snopes.com. 2007. http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp.
  26. ^ Raining cats and dogs at The Phrase Finder site. Accessed on 2009-07-28.
  27. ^ WordReference.com Language Forums, accessed on 2009-07-28.
  28. ^ It's raining cats and dogs at Omniglot.com. Accessed through Google's cache on 2009-07-28.

[edit] External references
I will be back with more info, Im installing a new program and it needs me to close my browser. Take a look at that for now!
Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Thanks for this!
Naturefreak