On This day – 6th August

The 6th of August 2000

You often hear people talk about such phenomena, generally in an "I've heard it from a friend" way of speaking, but in Great Yarmouth on August 6 2000 it actually happened: it rained fish. Or rather it rained fish over a small part of that fine old town.

The odd element of the event was preceded by a thunderstorm and the usual watery type of rain, albeit quite heavy as might be expected in a British summer

Then out of the sky fell small sprats, not just a few either, enough to completely cover a shed roof in one spot. Dead but not at all rotten.

The meteorologists explained the event as the result of a waterspout in the North Sea picking up a shoal of small fish along with the water in which they were swimming, then feeding into a thundercloud that when it burst dropped the silvery creatures from on high.

If only the tornado had passed a potato field on the way, wouldn't that be something?

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