If it's only rain, think yourself lucky

The storms they are a comin’, or so say the weather gurus. But then again they’re always prophesising doom in the shape of some sort of extreme weather pattern. So as we peer anxiously at the skies, spare a thought for those who have lived through much more extreme – and frankly, weird – weather in years gone by.

It’s raining frogs
Hallelulah! A shower of frogs apparently fell from the sky in 1954 and landed on Sutton Coldfield. Where else? The poor marine critters had apparently been sucked up into thunderclouds by a mini-tornado and then dumped miles away in a shower of heavy rain.

Flying fish
The same phenomenon was blamed for a shower of small flounder and Dover sole that fell to Earth in East London in May 1984. Most diverting – and handy for Billingsgate, too.

Is it a bird?
Dead birds have been known to plummet from the sky en masse, sometimes partly frozen. These are thought to have been swept up by the powerful updrafts of thundercloud and then frozen at altitude. They then drop to Earth like so many deadly oven-readies.

Ice, ice baby
Giant pieces of ice have reportedly crashed to earth in the past, the largest of which was apparently 20 feet long. This is said to have fallen on Scotland in 1849. The largest ever hailstones, however, fell on Bangladesh in 1986 - each weighed more than1kg and between them killed 92 people.

Bloody showers!
“Rains of blood” have been commonly reported since biblical times and are usually put down to some sort of divine retribution. The reality may be much more prosaic, however. In southern England in 1968 a fine red sand blew in from the Sahara before showery weather set in. The result? You guessed it – bright red rain.