In an unusual meteorological occurrence not witnessed in more than ten years, fish have literally fallen out of the sky in a remote outback hamlet.
Locals in Lajamanu, a hamlet in the Northern Territory that is 560 kilometers from Katherine and situated on the border of the Tanami Desert, were astounded by the phenomena on Tuesday during a storm.
Locals in Lajamanu first believed the impending “great storm” would just bring rain, according to Central Desert Councillor Andrew Johnson Japanangka.
He told the ABC, “We’ve witnessed fish going down as well as the rain began pouring.”
Several of the fish, according to Mr. Japanangka, were still alive once they hit the ground.
“We saw some dropping freely to the earth.” He said that several were falling onto the roof.
Youngsters are scooping them up and storing them in a container or jar, according to the statement.
Other fish were abandoned in puddles all across the town.
That was the “most incredible event,” Mr. Japanangka said, that the Lajamanu community had ever seen.
At least four fish have fallen from the sky at Lakamanu during the previous 30 years.
The community recently experienced this unusual weather occurrence in March 2010.
At the Top End neighborhood, fish have also fallen from the skies in 2004 and as far back as 1974.
The similar occurrence occurred in 2016 in the central Queensland desert town of Winton.
Waterspouts or powerful updrafts like tornadoes that suck up water and fish from rivers are thought to be the source of this incident, according to meteorologists.
Then, hundreds of kilometers distant, these fish drop with the rain.
»Fish rain falls on Lajamanu in the Northern Territory Outback«