Villagers scooped up buckets full of the valuable commodity after it rained fish in west Sri Lanka on May 6, 2014. Villagers in the district of Chilaw said they heard something heaving falling on the roofs of their homes and businesses and were surprised when they rain outside to find fish falling from the sky. The villagers collected over 100 lbs. of the edible fish – many of which were still alive and squirming. A similar incident occurred in Sri Lanka in 2012.
BBC weather experts explained how fish can rain from the sky:
“The most likely cause of this unusual event probably relates to the formation of a tornado. Tornadoes tend to form in areas where large differences in both temperature, humidity and wind speed and direction occur. Complex meteorological processes result in a rapidly rotating column of air spinning out of the base of storm clouds, often causing huge damage and acting like vacuum cleaners, sucking up any material in their path. In the Sri Lankan storm, a tornado probably formed over land, drifted over river systems or shallow coastal waters and sucked up light fish that were lifted all the way into the base of the storm cloud. Later the fish were rained out of the cloud.”