Shocked Scientists: Earthworms Rain Down In Norway Instead Of Water, Reasons Unknown

The phrase “It's raining cats and dogs” has extended to the earthworms too. Parts have Norway claims to have witnessed the phenomenon of raining earthworms in the mountainous area, followed by the area including Lindas, Femunden and Suldal.

The phenomenon of “raining earthworms” is being considered as a sign of nearing apocalypse or the precursor to the end of days, reported The New Zealand Herald. On the other hand, it is still unclear to the scientists in the Scandanavian nation about what was the reason behind the highly unexpected and unusual earthworm shower.

Karstein Erstad, a biology teacher, reportedly saw thousands of earthworms on the surface of the ice while skiing near Bergen. Since then, earthworm rains have been reported from a number of other areas within Norway.

“When I found them on the snow, they seemed to be dead, but when I put them in my hand I found that they were alive. In many places, the snow thickness was between half a metre and 1m and I think they would have problems crawling through the cold snow,” said Erstad, reported The New Zealand Herald.

A few reports suggest that hundreds of earthworms must have gotten picked up by violent wind currents, as that of a tornado. As a result, the crawling creatures might have got deposited on top of the ice, a thousand miles away from the place where they originated. However, the meteorologists suggest that the worms might have existed in the upper atmosphere.

Erstad safely took one of the earthworms from the ice to the researchers at the Bioforsk research institute. The researchers analysed the creature in an attempt to understand the phenomenon.

"This is a phenomenon we know from the literature, but it is the first time in my time as a scientist that I have got the message that it has happened in the snow," said Trond Haralsen from the institute, reported Yahoo! News.

Flying worms were reported back in the 1920s in Sweden. After a few decades, in 2002, the police department official in Louisiana reported a clump of earthworms falling down from above.

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