- [Narrator] We're all
used to water, snow, and even ice dropping
down on us from the skies. But even the most extreme storms don't measure up to some
of the other strange things that have come down from above. Be ready to expect the unexpected next time you go outside as we show you the strangest things that have fallen from the sky. (whimsical music) Number 10, a cow. In 1996 the crew of Japanese trawlers were rescued in the Sea of Japan clinging onto the wreckage of their ship. When authorities questioned them about how they had lost their boat, they were immediately imprisoned because of the ludicrous
explanation that was given. They said that a cow
had fallen from the sky, struck the ship, and caused it to sink. They were kept in prison for a few weeks until the Russian Air Force told the Japanese authorities
of what had happened. They said that a crew of
one of their cargo planes had stolen a cow from the
edge of a Siberian air field, but unable to deal with live cargo had ejected the animal
while they were 30,000 feet above the Sea of Japan. Before you start watching the
skies for flying cows though, there are questions over
the validity of this story. It has been told over a
number of times over the past 30 years and has become
somewhat of an urban legend. Still, these stories are always based on some element of truth. So it's entirely feasible that this did actually
happen at some point. Number nine, golf balls. In Florida, with its
numerous golf courses, it's not too uncommon to
hear someone shouting, fore, and having to watch yourself. But in 1969, something very peculiar, even for Florida happened. During a seemingly normal rainstorm, dozens and dozens of golf balls flew onto the town of Punta Gorda. The filled the gutters, lawns, and streets and baffled locals as
to how many could fall in such a short period of time. The town on the western Gulf Coast often sees severe weather
including water spouts. And it's now thought that
a tornado passed over a local golf course and picked them all up from a golf course lake to later deposit them when it dissipated. Number eight, reptiles. In early 2018, as the U.S. East Coast suffered the effects of
a so called bomb cyclone, which brought freezing temperatures and strange weather events such as the first measurable snowfall
in Tallahassee for 28 years, Floridians experienced
even stranger phenomenon, frozen iguanas falling from the trees. The reptiles, accustomed
to the warmer weather are cold-blooded, so when
temperatures fall too low, their bodies shut down
in an attempt to survive. This lead to residents finding seemingly dead and frozen iguanas
strewn across the ground. When the weather warmed
up, so did the iguanas and they came back to life ready to climb back into the trees and do whatever it is that iguanas do. Perhaps more frightening is a story from Charleston, South Carolina. In 1843 when, after a powerful storm, residents found a two-foot
long alligator on a street near the French Quarter. It's thought that the only
way it could have got there was by being carried there by the storm, probably explaining the reports that said it had the look
of wonder and bewilderment about it as it took in
its new surroundings. Number seven, raw meat. Probably one of the
last things you'd expect to see falling down on you is raw meat, but there have been quite a
few reports of it happening. In 2012 for example, pieces of chicken fell from an otherwise
clear blue sky in Virginia and hit a girl who was taking a horse riding lesson on her head. Luckily she was wearing
a helmet at the time so she didn't suffer any major injuries. Even stranger was an event in 1876 it what has become known as
the Kentucky Meat Shower. On clear March morning, fresh, raw meat, what appeared to be beef
began to fall from the sky for a few minutes. It was all shapes sizes. Some as small as flakes and some as large as three inches in length
and once it had finished had covered an area about 100
yards long and 50 yards wide. There was great debate at the time about how this could have happened, with some even suggesting
there was a ring of meat around our planet, with some
occasionally falling down, in the same way a meteor does. While both of these
events seem very strange, there's a generally accepted explanation that the meat has been picked
up birds, probably gulls, and they drop it when they either have had a enough of carrying it or encountered tricky
conditions to fly in. However it happens though, it's most definitely not
fit for human consumption. Number six, star jelly. Star jelly is a sticky
substance that has been found in various places around the world, including in Scotland, the
Lake District in England, and New York, Texas,
and many other places. It was even the inspiration behind the classic horror movie, The Blob. Legend has it that star
jelly falls to Earth during meteor showers and
is the sticky substance that keeps space rocks stuck together. But the reality is a
lot more down to Earth. During an investigation
for a TV show in the UK, a wildlife presenter retrieved
a sample of star jelly and sent it to the Natural
History Museum in London. Their analysis found that the substance was amphibious in origin,
most likely a frog, and also contained traces of the magpie. This is led to the conclusion
that rather than being other worldly matter,
star jelly is in fact, the remains of a frog or
frog spawn that was dropped by a bird that was in
the process of eating it. Number five, milk. Next time someone asks if you've got milk, spare a thought for the residents
of Chester, South Carolina who got more than they
bargained for in 1969. One of the local factories was owned by a company called Borden, whose main product was a non
dairy creamer called Cremora. For those who aren't familiar with it, the powdered product is added to liquid and turns into a milk substitute. The factory wasn't well maintained and in particular it had
issues with its exhaust fans. They would occasionally get blocked and this would result in the powder being released into the air. As you can imagine, if this
happened while it was raining, the town would get covered
in a layer of creamer. In 1991, the company was
eventually fined for the incident and others that happened in the late '60s, being ordered to pay $4,000
for releasing Cremora beyond the plant boundaries. Number four, human body. California citizens experience things falling from the sky more
often than most others. But one of the most unfortunate examples happened to Mary Fuller
from San Diego in 1978. She was sat in a parked car with her eight month old son one morning when a human body crashed
through her windshield. Fortunately her and her
son survived the incident with only minor cuts and bruises, but what that hadn't realized is that they had been witness to the tragic aftermath of one of California's worst ever
aviation disasters. Far above them in the sky
a private Cessna aircraft and collided with a Pacific
Southwest airline flight. 144 people were killed in the collision and one of the poor
victims had been ejected from the wreckage and
landed on top of the car. Number three, money. Of all the objects on this list, this is one you'd actually want to happen. There have been a number
of documented incidences where money has seemingly
fallen from the sky such as in 1957, when
thousands of 1,000 Frank notes fell down in the town
of Bourges in France. And in 1975, when $588 worth of notes fell to the ground in Chicago. More recently in 2017,
pedestrians in Indianapolis found $1 notes falling to the sidewalk, with the money thought to have come from a robbery gone wrong. And in late 2018, $30,000
worth of bank notes was thrown from a building and fell to the baying crowds in Hong Kong as a stunt to promote a currency website. But if cold hard cash isn't your thing, then how about gold? In 2018 a cargo plane was taking off from Yakutsk airport in Siberia when the cargo hatch tore open and spilled nearly 200
gold bars into the air. Weighing almost three metric tons, most of the gold bars
landed onto to the runway, but the plane continued for 10 miles before it could land, so a large quantity fell to the ground that was never officially recovered. Number two, fish. Fish are undoubtedly
the most common animal to fall from the sky. So much so, that in Mexico
they have a name for it, lluvea de peces, which means rain of fish. There are countless stories of communities struck by this phenomenon, and it happens across the world. In 2010 the Australian town of Lajamanu experienced two days of fish rain, with hundreds of spangled perch falling, some of which were still alive. It's thought that a thunderstorm could have picked the fish up as high as 40 or 50,000 feet into the air, where they were frozen
until they fell again. This was the third time in 30 years that it had happened here, but still the meteorologists seem unable to predict it happening. Then in 2012, players at
a California golf course found an even larger
fish, a leopard shark. It had puncture marks, which
seem to have been from a bird that picked it up from
the nearby Pacific Ocean and amazingly it was still alive. Workers took it straight back to the beach and it soon swam off,
seemingly quite healthy. Finally, in late 2018, a
Redditer posted about fish that they had found in their garden, blood red and a horrifying shape. They had no idea what type of fish it was, until someone later confirmed it to be a short spined sea scorpion. As the person who posted the
image lived on a cliff side, they presume that a bird
must have caught the fish and dropped as it flew over head. If you ever find one of
these in your garden, stay well clear. They shouldn't be handled
without protection, as they can be very harmful. Number one, spiders. In what is probably
the worst news possible for any arachnophobes,
spiders falling from the sky is actually a relatively
common phenomenon. Videos from around the world in places like Brazil and Australia show the air full of black specks, each of which is an eight legged creature looking for somewhere to land. There are actually two
ways that this can happen. The first, common in Brazil, is because of a species
called Parawixia bistriata. These small spiders
aren't actually falling, but weave very fine webs anywhere they can in order to trap prey. The web is virtual impossible to see with the naked eye though, so it gives the impression
that they are falling down. The other way spiders get up so high is because of a process called ballooning. This is how spiderlings
travel to new areas. They climb to the top of tall vegetation and release a silk balloon that
carries them into the wind. They have been seen traveling
miles with this method and cause havoc for those in their path, when the ground getting covered
in webs when a swarm lands. It's this method that has allowed spiders to travel across the
world and reach islands that would otherwise had
been inaccessible to them. If you'd like to learn
more about how spiders fly, you should check out
this video on screen now. And next time it's raining
and you look up to sky, remember it could be more than just water falling down from the heavens. If you're lucky, it could
be something valuable, but could just as easily be
something potentially deadly or incredibly gross. What's the strangest things
you've seen fall from the sky. Let me know in the comments down below. Thanks for watching. (whimsical music)
