MILDRED — It rained fish in Mildred last week.
Yes, you read that right.
Although the meteorological phenomenon is a rare one, experts claim it indeed occurs all over the world.
According to the BBC News, for example, “scientists say that ‘fish rain’ usually occurs when swirling whirlwinds over relatively shallow water develops into waterspouts and sucks in almost anything including fish, eels and even frogs.”
Over the weekend, Regena Lance said she was headed outside when she suddenly noticed something peculiar lying on the ground.
“There’s a little fish,” she said to herself. “That’s odd.”
Curious, she began scanning about, searching: “There’s another one. There’s another one. There’s another one.”
“I just kept seeing ‘em and seeing ‘em,” Lance recalled.
What on earth was happening?
Unsure, Lance asked her father, 85-year-old Sam Rife, what he made of the situation.
“Well, it rained fish,” he said, without missing a beat.
“[The wind] sucks up the water and carries ‘em.”
“I thought he was full of bologna,” said Lance, “but then I Googled it. It does rain fish.”
Granted, it’s still a weird thing for folks to wrap their heads around.
“I was talking to a neighbor and he thought I was crazy,” Lance laughed.
But sure enough, at Lance’s house east of Mildred this Register reporter found the ground covered with tiny minnows of a mysterious origin.
“I’d like to find a whopper!” exclaimed Lance as she looked about, counting excitedly.
Everywhere you turned, beady black eyes and silver scales.
As for where the minnows came from, Lance and Rife were unsure.
“Where did they start out?” Lance wondered. “Are they foreign fish?”
Perhaps it will forever remain a legend, like that of Cyclone Bill, said Rife, who set about recalling several “different miracles.”
This particular one took place in Bentonville, Ark., he said, after a cyclone “tore up a whole lot of stuff.”
Rife’s grandfather was OK, but after the storm “there was a baby sitting there on the ground, crying.”
“They tried for years to find out where he come from,” said Rife, but Cyclone Bill never did discover his true origins.
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