Video has captured fish falling from the sky in the Mexican town of Tampico
A rather fishy weather phenomenon took residents of a Mexican coastal city by surprise on Wednesday.
Tiny silver fish fell from the sky with light rain in northeast Mexico, according to civil defense officials.
Tamaulipas civil defense reported a "curious case" of fish accompanying rain in the city of Tampico, the Daily Mail reports.
"Not to say there were a lot of fish - one here, one there," Pedro Granados, director of civil defense, told Info7 on Tuesday. "It has to be said, they're very small fish, which weigh a few grams. It's strange, not normal."
The civil defense agency in Tamaulipas posted a photo of four small fish in a bag and a photo of one on a sidewalk.
The rare meteorological phenomenon is believed to occur after tornadoes over water - called waterspouts - suck fish into the air and carry them to land. Photo / Facebook
A blurry video posted on YouTube shows a few of the tiny fish on the sidewalk.
The rare meteorological phenomenon is believed to occur after tornadoes over water - called waterspouts - suck fish into the air and carry them to land.
Because the city of Tampico is surrounded by lagoons, officials said this event is not entirely surprising.
Granados commented that this strange occurrence is hardly surprising given the month Mexico has had.
"I don't know if it's climate change," Granados said, "but we've had tornadoes, storms, rains, floods, raining fish, eclipses, earthquakes, all kinds of natural phenomena that we aren't used to, but that we are experiencing these days."
Mexico suffered a 7.1 magnitude earthquake last week that killed at least 300 people.
Why does it rain fish?
This strange weather incident is believed to occur after tornadoes over water - called waterspouts - suck fish or other animals into the air.
They are blown around until windspeeds slow enough to release them to the ground.
The phenomenon has been reported since ancient times, also involving other flightless animals like toads and frogs.
In May of this year, Oroville, a city in northern California experienced rains with dozens of carp.
