Freak Apple Storm Pelts Cars

Rain of fruit baffles British drivers
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 15, 2011 2:01 AM CST
Freak Apple Storm Pelts Cars
"It's hypothetically possible that a tornado could have picked them up and that they were transported in turbulent air until they fell," a government meteorologist says.   (Shutterstock)

Drivers on a busy road in central England were suddenly forced to pull over when it started raining apples. "The apples fell out of the sky as if out of nowhere. They were small and green, and hit the bonnet hard," says one driver, noting that there were no apple trees in the area. Some believed the fruit had fallen from a plane, while a local councilwoman suggested the supernatural was to blame. "We're in an area with a spooky history, where there have been witches for centuries," she said. Experts, however, believe the fruity freak storm was caused by a mini-tornado.

"These events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again," a senior meteorologist from British Weather Services tells the Telegraph. "We've all heard of the fish and frogs falling from the sky. Apples are certainly unusual because they have some weight to them, but it is not out of the realm of possibility." (More strange stuff stories.)

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