HOW many of us love rain? The feeling of cool water in the form of raindrops on one’s palm or face? The heady smell of wet earth and the trees awakening with the fresh waters from the skies above?

It all sounds so poetic, and it is, at least for people like yours truly. But then there is a dark side to this normal and refreshing phenomenon of nature. A side that is not only bizarre and weird, but is being studied and still remains a mystery. We are talking about cases when, instead of water, strange stuff falls down from the skies above leaving everyone baffled. Stuff like fish, toads, bugs, blood and coins! All this falling like rain, on a small or large area. And yes! Sometimes even water falling from a sunny, cloudless sky.

Surprised? Don’t blame you; it is pretty scary, if not ridiculous. Scientists have tried to explain these strange phenomena but still quite a few of the occurrences of strange rain are left as puzzles waiting to be solved. A substance known as ‘Star Jelly’, a gelatine type of material that is also known to have fallen in the form of rain has been written about in an English-Latin dictionary from 1440CE.

According to folklore, it is the residue of falling or shooting stars. But researchers claim it to be some type of algae; an animal by-product or material from the Earth’s surface that turns jelly-like when atmospheric moisture is added.

Then we come to other more known stuff falling in the form of rain, familiar things but presenting themselves in a most unfamiliar fashion. Large numbers of fish and toads have been known to fall in many areas. Plant martial has also been observed as rainfall.

The reason given by experts for the unusual rain is that tornadoes and extremely high winds mingled with waterspout sucking may be the cause. A tornado picks up any and everything in its violent path and travels with it for a distance, dropping it in another spot. A small body of water like a lake or pond could be sucked up and the inhabitants living in or around it might be the cause of the ‘fish falling from the skies’.

As far as the blood rain or red rain is concerned, it is said to be fine red-coloured dust and other organic material. Something that baffled residents in Kerala, India, where blood-red rainfall was experienced and it was discovered that the same kind of fine red dust and spores were found nearby. An incident that occurred on May 3rd, 2004, was reported by a woman living in Jupiter Beach, Florida, where during an afternoon rain strange and scary bugs fell in the hundreds. She wrote in her report, dated June 2004, that these things were thin and black and were three to five inches in diameter.

The fishermen in the area who often went into marshlands too, had never seen anything like them. Her family checked all kinds of books on insects to see if these ‘bugs’ looked like anything on record. But so far nothing like these critters have been found! Quite bugging, one might say!

Live fish rained down in Glamorganshire, Wales, on February 9, 1856, covering an area of 80 by 12 yards. Then fish fell from the skies Marksville, Louisiana, on October 23, 1947, and this time they have said to have covered an area of 75 to 100 feet. Moreover, some of the fish were frozen. Then on September 23, 1973, a rain of toads dropped in France, in the town of Brignoles. Tiny frogs also rained in another French village for almost two days.

The reason that sucked up winds or tornadoes caused these bizarre scenarios is the only one that experts can give. But the question here is how can a tornado be selective about just one single species to wind up its spinning tunnel? A whirlwind or a tornado takes up any and everything in its roaring path.

Interestingly, there have been a couple of incidents in which coins have fallen from above. In 1982, on May 28, a young girl was walking through St Elisabeth’s churchyard in the town of Redding in Manchester, England, when a 50 pence coin fell near her. Later that day more children on the streets found coins at the same place.

The surprised candy storeowner could not understand the line of children that came in for candies. He thought the little ones had stolen the money from the donation box inside the church. So off he went to the Reverend who told him that no money had been stolen. When he later questioned the children, they all said the money had ‘fallen from the sky’!

In another incident in the past, December 1968, the London Daily Mirror reported that people who were shopping at Ramsgate in Kent, England, saw coins falling on the pavement. The woman who witnessed the event, Jean Clements, stated to the paper, “Between 40 to 50 of them came down in short bursts for about 15 minutes. You couldn’t see them falling. All you heard was the sound of them hitting the ground”. Since no tall buildings or airplanes were above the area, the mystery still remains.

Money falling from the skies, what more can one ask for? Just kidding. Okay now we come to something scarier that is to say of the paranormal kind. Shockingly, rain fell on a patch of land just between two trees on October 1886, in the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, everyday for three weeks without a cloud cover!

In the same year in Aiken, South Carolina, rain fell on just two graves, which were in the cemetery. A most peculiar phenomenon, which was seen by hundreds of visitors! Next time it rains, take a sturdy umbrella before you take that walk!