Frogs From The Sky

Nature has its way of providing us with unusual and interesting experiences. They don't occur often, but they do happen.

My friend George Villareal wrote an article about the unusual number colorful butterflies that appeared around his home in Northern California for about a week, covering the trees, blanketing his lawn and transforming the blue sky into a mosaic of colors when the creatures were disturbed. A phenomenal occurence he had never seen before, he wrote.

George's story brought back memories of a certain experience I had long time ago. And I mean way,way back... when I was eight or nine years old.

Raining frogs. Yes, frogs falling from the sky. Sounds too far-fetched, but it's something I've seenand will never forget. Even my mother did not believe me when I told her right after it happened.

It was a late afternoon/early evening sometime in the early 1950s. We were living in a compound in Kamuning along with extended family members at the time. My mother and relatives were busy cooking for a party to be held the next day. I was alone in the backyard when a rainstorm came.

It was really pouring when I noticed the strange looking tiny objects falling from the sky. I looked closely and found out they were frogs! Frogs of varying sizes from about the size of my thumb to smaller ones the size of a fly. They were not tadpoles. They were freaking four-legged frogs!

There must have been hundreds of thousands of tiny frogs and I'm not exaggerating. Within minutes the backyard was full of jumping frogs. I wanted to run inside the house to tell the folks what was happening but decided not to, for fear of getting scolded for playing out in the rain and knowingthat everybody was busy.

I found an empty candy jar - the common garapon, and started scooping the little creatures with my hands. The onslaught was over after a few more minutes. It stopped raining and the remaining frogs hopped away into the bushes. I had a jar full of tiny frogs when my mother saw me soaking wet. It was getting dark and she was wondering where I was. She did not believe me when I told her what just occured. She assumed that I was out catching frogs in a creek a few blocks from our house.

Even my playmates who saw my jar of frogs later on did not believe me when I told them where they came from.

Today, almost 60 years later, I wondered if the Internet would show any recorded accounts of similar occurences. I went to Google.com and typed in "frogs from the sky"

Aba meron nga! Wow! There's quite a few sites about the subject. Here's a couple that I picked:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=20177 http://allaboutfrogs.org/weird/general/raining.html

I want to share this experience with everybody, especially now that I have something toback up my story.

* * * * *

I sent a copy this to George. Below is his response with another link.

Tony,

Your narrative about the raining of frogs is amazing at several levels -
1. It is a true story based on a first hand account (yours) and corroborated as scientifically possible by similar occurences in other times & places;
2. The phenomenon has biblical antecedent, and
3. For those with literary bent, it is a metaphor for "unbelievable truth" as one observer wrote. The movie, "Magnolia" starring Tom Cruise has a scene depicting the "raining of frogs" phenomenon and it raised speculations as to its meaning and relevance. Thought you might enjoy what folks have said about it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005101900005

George