Raining Fish and Frogs 15 In January 2012, residents of a town in Sur, the Phubppines, got the shock of their lives when raining the world was coming to an end But they were just witnesses to a phenomenon thought been moughout over the word People insist rare that has history and all up small items there is a simple explanation strong wn traveling over water may sometimes pick or animals such as or frogs before depositing them few kilometers on However, in Depatmento de Yoro ot Honduras, it has been raining fish for years and no one has figured out how or why this happens Every May or June. a heavy lasting up to three hours leaves the streets with small fish, many still napping about A National Geographic team, which documented the"rainfall in the 1970s, determined that the fish were all of the same species but were not found anywhere a the area, it is also exceptionally rare to have it occur in the same place twice since 199e. the city of Yoro has even organited a testival around this called, appropriately, "The Rain Of Fish Festival" Ball Lightning For centuries, people have reported seeing strange giowing balls of light appear during thunderstorms Called ball lightning. these tennis- or even beach ball-sized spheres typicaay glow. spin, hess, bounce Graham K. Hubler, a physicist who studies ball lightning, describes an encounter when he was 16 years old"it's extraordinary-you're so started that you remember it for the rest of your life," he said"It drihed along a few feet above the ground, but when it came inside lthe paviljoni it dropped down to the ground and skittered along the floor For years, scientists could not explain the phenomenon But a pair of Brazdian scientists may have finally solved it by creating ball lightning in a lab in 2007 The pair suggested that when lightning strikes a surface like the Earth's silica-nch soil. a vapor or gas is formed This silicon vapor then combines with oxygen in the air and slowly burns. Energy from this chemical reaction causes the resuming ball of electricity to zoom around,