It's Literally Raining Worms In Norway

So, Norwegians now have a new spin on the old saying "It's raining cats and dogs" — because it's been raining worms in southern Norway recently. Scientists are baffled by the earthworms falling from the sky across the region, but it may not be the first time this has happened — believe it or not, worms raining down from the sky isn't a new phenomenon. Let's just hope it doesn't become a recurring weather pattern. The frizzy hair rain inevitably causes is bad enough.

A Norwegian biology teacher, Karstein Erstad, discovered a bed of thousands of earthworms on top of the snow on Sunday while skiing outside Bergen in the southwest of the Nordic country. According to The Local, he originally thought they had crawled up through the snow from the ground beneath, but realized this wasn't likely. Erstad told The Local: "In many places, the snow thickness was between half a meter and a meter and I think they would have problems crawling through the cold snow."

The worms appeared to still be alive, meaning living, slimy invertebrate were falling from the sky. I have to say, worms must be a lot stronger than they seem. "People have now observed the same phenomenon in many places in Norway," Erstad told The Local. "It’s very peculiar, I don’t know why so many people have discovered it. I don’t know if there have been some special weather conditions lately."

Other people have reported raining worms all across southern Norway — including Lindas and Suldal, fairly close to Bergen, and Femunden, hundreds of miles away. Researchers believe the earthworms must have been been swept up by the wind in an area where they were lying above ground and then fell with the rain. Think Sharknado, only... with worms.

Erstad told The Local that he found similar reports of worm rainfall in Sweden in the 1920s. So what's up with these Nordric countries and worms falling from the sky? "It’s a very rare phenomenon," Erstad told The Local. "It’s difficult to say how many times it happens, but it has only been reported a very few times."

According to Live Science, it's happened elsewhere, too. A group of second-grade soccer players in Scotland had to abandon a game due to worms raining down in 2011, as worms falling on players' heads isn't the most sport-compatible weather. You may want to pay closer attention next time it starts to rain.

Images: Rosanne Salvatore (1); Giphy