The incident occurred in Hatfield, England, May 17th 1996, at about 6.30 pm, as Mrs Ruth Harnett and her husband David were hurrying to unload the weekly shopping. It was not raining and the air became suddenly very chilly. Hearing a loud thump on her van’s roof, Ruth was surprised to see a modest-sized fish. Looking up into the cloudy sky, she saw a second fish heading towards her. It hit the van’s hood.
“I looked around, thinking it was kids mucking about,”
said Ruth. “Then three more fishes dropped in my garden and I realised they were falling from the sky.” She called David, who was inside the house. “As he came out, I looked up again, which was a big mistake. I was bombarded with fish and one hit me in the face.” Some local children came running up laughing and they all stood in wonder as about twenty more fish plummeted down.

This was the second time in living memory that Ruth’s family had experienced this strange phenomenon.
“I remember as a child my father telling me that his father was caught in a shower of fish and frogs near Welwyn Garden City, just seven miles away, about sixty years ago.”