Unusual weekend weather: fish rain in Yasukh

The Iranian city of Yasukh witnessed a shower of fish probably due to a waterspout in the Persian Gulf that carried them inland

Last weekend, residents of Yasukh, a city in Iran’s Boyer-Ahmad province, witnessed an incredible and unusual spectacle: a rain of fish. This extraordinary phenomenon surprised locals and caught the attention of newspapers and social media, with videos captured by eyewitnesses quickly going viral, sparking interest and curiosity.

The probable cause of this unusual event

The most likely cause of this unusual event appears to have been a waterspout in the Persian Gulf. These waterspouts, whirling columns of air that form over the water’s surface, can lift fish from the sea and carry them several kilometers inland before releasing them onto land.

Once the fish are suspended in the air, they are transported by the ascending wind currents before falling onto the land as a rain of fish. This is exactly what happened in Yasukh, where thousands of fish were carried from the sea and fell from the sky onto streets and vehicles.

Other possible explanations for this phenomenon

While “fish rains” are rare, they are not entirely new and have been recorded in various parts of the world in the past. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of the scientific community, which has sought to understand the causes of this strange meteorological event.

Other possible causes of this phenomenon include seismic activity and adverse environmental conditions in water bodies. Earthquakes, for example, can stir up the sea bed and bring fish to the surface, while a lack of oxygen or water pollution might force fish to seek air at the surface, making them vulnerable to being lifted by air currents.

Despite fish rains being a phenomenon that still seems mysterious and almost out of a science fiction movie, they can be explained through a combination of meteorological, geological, and environmental events that warrant reflection.