STRANGE FALLS
A black rain in Japan, plummeting bats in Israel and airborne aubergines in Iran
Downpours of blood-coloured rain fell for almost a month
BLACK RAIN
Mysterious black rain fell on Japan in early March, days after one of the fiercest lightning storms on record hit Tokyo.
The rain, which resembled thin black paint and left sootcoloured puddles, ignited fears that it was somehow connected to the coronavirus pandemic, with locals speculating on social media that the cause might be the mass cremation of bodies. Others said the strange sight was “about as bad an omen as you can get these days.”
Black rain is a shocking sight for some older Japanese people, since dark radioactive rain had dropped from the skies over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a by-product of nuclear fallout. This year’s rain was tested for radioactivity, but none was found. There was speculation that a fire in a plastics factory in Hasuda, 20 miles (32 km) north of Tokyo, had sent fine particles of ash into the atmosphere, later to fall on the city in a rainstorm.
Black, yellow, green and even red rains have all been recorded before. In Kerala, India, heavy downpours of blood-coloured rain fell for almost a month in 2001. It was estimated that 50,000kg (110,000lb) of the strange red liquid had fallen in total. Two physicists, Godfrey Louis and Santhosh Kumar, suggested the rain might be connected to a comet that had disintegrated over the region in their article ‘Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Kerala’ (see FT209:16). Of course, mysterious falls from the sky are classic fortean phenomena. Recently, around 200 starlings were found dead, having fallen over Anglesey, North Wales (FT388:4). Worms (FT262:24-25), fish (FT276:2425) and toads (FT309:18) have also been recorded, and in 1876, large pieces of red meat fell from a clear sky onto farmland near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky (FT346:4). dailystar.co.uk, thesun.co.uk, 5 Mar 2020.
FALLING BATS IN ISRAEL
Dozens of dead bats have fallen from the sky in Israel. A man spotted the lifeless creatures while walking through the Gan Leumi park in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. He shared four photos of the dead bats on social media, before another resident, several miles away, posted a video of the same sight. The clip shows a woman moving from one
corpse to another. A resident of nearby Bnei Brak also found dead bats on the ground. Many of the bats are reportedly young and show no signs of trauma, leaving one expert puzzled. “The phenomenon is extremely rare,” said Nora Lifshitz, founder of the Israeli Bat Society. (See also David Hambling’s letter, FT392:71). dailystar.co.uk, 26 Mar 2020.
FAKE AUBERGINE RAIN
Iranian police arrested five people for their involvement in a prank video that showed aubergines falling from the sky. It is not clear what offence the arrested men were accused of. One of the viral clips shows a man trying to pose for a photo with Tehran’s iconic Milad Tower in the background when suddenly a hail of aubergines starts coming down.
Amid online speculation, it was suggested that the video had been made by an “Amin Taghipour, an Iranian living in Canada proficient in special effects who works in Hollywood”. Iran state news said: “He had visited Iran for his father’s funeral but his flight back was cancelled over the coronavirus outbreak and now he is trying to have fun”. Iran has been badly hit by coronavirus, with nearly 140,000 people infected and 7,500 dead. guardian.co.uk, 16 Mar 2020.