In Paul Thomas Anderson's cult movie Magnolia, the final, climactic scene sees actor William H Macy being caught in a dramatic shower – not of rain, but of frogs.
This may appear to be the figment of a director's overactive imagination. But in fact amphibian showers have a long pedigree. In chapter 8 of the Book of Exodus, God threatens the Egyptians for their refusal to release the Israelites: "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs." During the 19th century, American meteorologist Charles Fort documented many such bizarre events, including frogs (dead and alive), fish, snails, snakes, eels and even "gushes of periwinkles"; the latter falling on the city of Worcester on 28 May 1881.
At the time, many scientists dismissed Fort's reports as the ravings of a deluded madman, but nowadays it is widely accepted that such extraordinary phenomena do occasionally happen. In March 1998, the town of Bracknell experienced a shower of dead frogs, while in August 2000 Great Yarmouth received a similar shower, this time of dead sprats.
It is now believed that these apparently inexplicable weather events are caused by small, localised tornadoes known as waterspouts. As they pass over the sea or a lake, these suck up water, along with the creatures living there. And because the waterspout deposits items of different weights at different times, similar sized creatures such as frogs will all fall out together.