Dear, It Appears to be Raining Frogs

On the way to Sierra de la Ventana we had stopped for a coffee and a fill up in the town of Azul. As we sat there waiting for Augusto, Maria told me that 5 years earlier, in the parking lot of that very same gas station, she had seen thousands of little frogs raining down from the sky.

At first glance this looked like confirmation that she had lost it. She even claimed that that had been the third time she had witnessed amphibian rain. Little warning bells went off in my head. And this was the first day of a long weekend together. But then Augusto came in and signed off on the story. He had been there that day in Azul. It was true.

Frog rain, it turns out, is a fairly common phenomenon first reported way back in history. In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys wrote on May 23rd 1661: "At table I had very good discourse with Mr. Ashmole, wherein he did assure me that frogs and many insects do often fall from the sky, ready formed." In July 1883 Scientific American wrote: "A shower of frogs, which darkened the air and covered the ground for a long distance, is the reported result of a recent rainstorm at Kansas City, Missouri." More recently a frog rain occurred in Odzaci, Serbia in June 2005. There is even a frog rain scene in the movie Magnolia. The theory is that tornadoes or violent thunderstorms passing over ponds and creeks pick up the frogs and toads and then drop them nearby or hundreds of miles away.

But this was not enough to explain how one person could witness three events in the same general area of Argentinian pampas. Then I read this observation: “Away from coastal areas, frogs and toads are more frequently swept up because sizeable inland swamps or mrshy areas can easily be cleared out by storms.” Add pampas to that list. Pampas are lowland plains that flood easily after heavy rains. On our trip we saw flooded areas and lagoons along every route. It had rained heavily a few days before the weekend.

So Maria has been completely vindicated. All those who doubted her in the past should learn their lesson.

Pictured below is an Argentinian Horned Frog, also known as Pac Man.