Within Weird Belgium
Did Frogs and Red Rain Fall on Belgium?
Belgium's odd sky-fall reports turn storms, dust, animals and witness interpretation into a classic Fortean puzzle.
On this page
- The Tournai frog fall tradition
- Charles Fort and red rain reports
- Natural explanations and lingering strangeness
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Introduction
Belgium’s reputation for strange sky phenomena does not rest only on modern UFO reports. Older stories describe frogs falling during storms and rain stained an alarming shade of red, creating exactly the kind of puzzling accounts that later fascinated collectors of unexplained events. Although the evidence for individual cases is often fragmentary, these reports have remained part of Belgium’s weird-history tradition because they sit at the crossroads of folklore, early journalism, natural history and meteorology. Rather than proving anything supernatural, they show how unusual weather could become memorable enough to survive for centuries, while later writers such as Charles Fort transformed isolated reports into classic examples of “damned facts” that seemed to resist easy explanation.[Wikipedia]WikipediaThe Book of the DamnedThe Book of the Damned
The Tournai frog-fall tradition
The best-known Belgian example is the reported frog fall at Tournai in 1625. According to later compilations of historical records, witnesses claimed that large numbers of frogs descended during or immediately after a storm, creating one of Europe’s earliest and most frequently repeated examples of an “animal rain”. The event has been cited in herpetological historical research as an example of how unusual natural-history observations entered local memory before modern meteorology existed.[Wikipedia]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
The difficulty is that the story reaches modern readers through layers of retelling rather than through a complete contemporary eyewitness account. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers repeated the Tournai incident because it neatly illustrated a broader European tradition of mysterious falls from the sky. As the story travelled, it became less a single documented event than a representative example of an enduring class of atmospheric curiosities.[Wikipedia]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
For Belgium, the significance lies less in whether frogs literally rained from the clouds than in how the report became part of the country’s catalogue of unusual historical events. Tournai appears repeatedly in lists of famous animal-fall cases alongside reports from France, England and elsewhere, helping to anchor Belgium within a wider European tradition of extraordinary weather lore.[Wikipedia]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
Charles Fort and red-rain reports
When American writer Charles Fort assembled thousands of strange reports in The Book of the Damned (1919), Belgium and the Low Countries appeared repeatedly in his collection of anomalous weather. Fort was not trying to demonstrate that frogs or coloured rain had paranormal causes. Instead, he argued that such reports had been ignored or prematurely explained because they did not fit accepted scientific expectations.[Wikipedia]WikipediaThe Book of the DamnedThe Book of the Damned
Among the examples Fort highlighted was a red rain reported at Blankenberge in November 1819, then often described within the historical geography of Holland but geographically part of modern Belgium. Contemporary chemists investigated the coloured rainfall and concluded that it contained dissolved substances rather than simply wind-blown sand, although they disagreed over the exact chemistry. Fort used the case not as proof of anything extraordinary but as an illustration of scientific uncertainty surrounding unusual atmospheric deposits.[Wikisource]en.wikisource.orgChapter 3The Book of the Damned/Chapter 3That, Nov. 2, 1819—week before the black rain and earthquake of Canada—there fell, at Blankenbe…
Because Fort grouped frog falls, blood-coloured rain, dust showers and other atmospheric oddities together, later Fortean writers often discussed Belgian examples as part of a single family of unexplained sky phenomena. That editorial choice helped preserve otherwise obscure local reports long after they had disappeared from everyday public memory.[Wikipedia]WikipediaThe Book of the DamnedThe Book of the Damned
Why did people call it “blood rain”?
Before modern atmospheric science, red rain naturally invited dramatic interpretations. Across Europe it could be understood as an omen, divine warning or supernatural sign, particularly if it coincided with war, plague or political upheaval.
Scientific investigation gradually produced more ordinary explanations. Today, reddish rain is commonly attributed to airborne dust, mineral particles or microscopic organisms such as algae or spores carried long distances by winds before mixing with rainfall. Different historical cases almost certainly had different causes, and not every old report contains enough evidence for a confident modern diagnosis.[Wikisource]en.wikisource.orgChapter 3The Book of the Damned/Chapter 3That, Nov. 2, 1819—week before the black rain and earthquake of Canada—there fell, at Blankenbe…
That uncertainty explains why blood-rain stories remain attractive to Fortean writers. They are genuine historical reports, yet many lack the physical evidence needed for definitive explanation.
Natural explanations and lingering strangeness
Modern science offers several mechanisms that can account for at least some reports of frogs apparently falling from the sky.
The leading explanations include:
- Waterspouts or tornadoes, which may lift small aquatic animals from ponds or marshes before depositing them elsewhere.
- Heavy rainfall exposing hidden amphibians, creating the impression that they have suddenly appeared from nowhere.
- Mass amphibian movements during breeding seasons, when thousands of frogs or toads emerge almost simultaneously after rain.
- Exaggeration through repeated retelling, where an unusual but ordinary event becomes progressively more spectacular over time.[Wikipedia]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
None of these explanations solves every historical account perfectly. Waterspouts are rarely observed collecting frogs directly, and many old reports provide too little detail to reconstruct the weather conditions with confidence. That gap between plausible explanation and incomplete evidence is precisely why such stories continue to occupy the borderland between folklore and anomalous history.[Wikipedia]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
Why these stories still matter in Belgian Forteana
Compared with Belgium’s famous UFO wave, frog falls and red rain are modest curiosities. Yet they reveal an older layer of the country’s strange-history record, one rooted in weather, observation and storytelling rather than modern technology.
They also illustrate an important pattern found throughout Belgian Forteana. A striking event is reported locally, repeated in newspapers or books, adopted by later collectors such as Charles Fort, and eventually remembered less as a scientific puzzle than as part of the country’s cultural landscape of mysteries.
Whether the frogs of Tournai actually descended from storm clouds or whether the red rain owed its colour to dust and microscopic particles, these stories continue to demonstrate how extraordinary weather can become enduring folklore. Their lasting fascination comes not from proving the impossible but from showing how ordinary natural processes, imperfect records and human imagination can combine to produce mysteries that survive for centuries.[wikipedia.org]WikipediaRain of animalsRain of animals
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Further Reading
Books and field guides related to Did Frogs and Red Rain Fall on Belgium?. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.
The Book of the Damned
Includes famous anomalous falls and unexplained weather reports.
The Curious World of Charles Fort
Explains why frog falls became famous Fortean cases.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: The Book of the Damned
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Damned
2.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Rain of animals
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals
3.
Source: en.wikisource.org
Title: Chapter 3
Link:https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Damned/Chapter_3
Source snippet
The Book of the Damned/Chapter 3That, Nov. 2, 1819—week before the black rain and earthquake of Canada—there fell, at Blankenbe...
4.
Source: publicdomainreview.org
Title: charles fort and the book of the damned
Link:https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/charles-fort-and-the-book-of-the-damned/
Source snippet
The Public Domain ReviewStrange Gods: Charles Fort's Book of the Damned (1919)26 Nov 2024 — Rains of blood and frogs, mysterious disappea...
5.
Source: catalog.hathitrust.org
Link:https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011592825
Additional References
6.
Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Rouse/publication/289540179_Meet_Me_at_the_Fair_A_World%27s_Fair_Reader/links/569027fc08aee91f69a16996/Meet-Me-at-the-Fair-A-Worlds-Fair-Reader.pdf
7.
Source: pearl-hifi.com
Link:https://pearl-hifi.com/11_Spirited_Growth/01_Books/Fort_Charles/Charles_Fort_The_Complete_Books_of_Charles_Fort.pdf
Source snippet
The Complete Books of Charles FortHe found that sober and experienced observers, again and again, had reported falls of blood, of fish, o...
8.
Source: history.army.mil
Link:https://history.army.mil/portals/143/Images/Publications/catalog/7-3.pdf
Source snippet
Support of the Armies, Volume IIIt is as important a book for combat commanders as for those who have to plan and execute logistical oper...
9.
Source: gutenberg.org
Link:https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22472/22472-h/22472-h.htm
Source snippet
Project GutenbergThe Book of the DamnedThe Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of the Damned, by Charles Fort. This eBook is for the use...
10.
Source: pdimagearchive.org
Link:https://pdimagearchive.org/images/f6472517-511a-4dd9-969a-72710c88244b
Source snippet
these were the anomalies that fascinated Charles Fort in his *Book of the...Read more...
11.
Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZDALrvGAol/
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te a defensive barrier and held a thin strip of...Read more...
12.
Source: archeositarproject.it
Link:https://www.archeositarproject.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2014_Abstract_EAA.pdf
Source snippet
Salutatory Address by Abdullah Kocapınar.Read more...
13.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDUcA3h5p9M
Source snippet
ish, stones, and other bizarre materials that have rained down from...
14.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj7IncfUd44
Source snippet
e Damned" is a bizarre collection of anomalous reports from real...
15.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Blood Rain’ to Soak UK: Why Skies Are Turning Red | WION Podcast
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNaLpyzxRE
Source snippet
THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED Part 1 of 2 - FULL AudioBook...
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