Fri, Dec 16, 2011
Apples fall from the sky over Coventry
An avalanche of more than 100 apples rained down
over a main road in Keresley, Coventry on Monday night.
The street was left littered with apples after they pelted car
windscreens and bonnets just after rush-hour.
The bizarre downpour may have been caused by a current of air
that lifted the fruit from a garden or orchard, releasing it over
the junction of Keresley Road and Kelmscote Road.
One driver said: "The apples fell out of the sky as if out of
nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard.
"There were other cars on the road at the time too and everyone
had to stop their cars suddenly.
"It wouldn't surprise me if some cars were damaged. I know the
area well and there are no apple trees around."
Yesterday, the smashed apples could still be seen up and down
the 20-yard stretch of road.
Dave Meakins, a retired fork lift truck driver, said he thought
the apples had been thrown as a prank by children.
"I honestly don't know where the apples could have come from,"
he said.
"I assumed kids must have thrown them because we do get the
occasional egg and apple thrown but there's way too much for
that.
"I would love to know where they came from."
Some said they thought the apples had fallen from a passing
plane.
Keresley parish councillor Sandra Camwell said a freak black-out
happened on the same road last year.
She said: "Strange things do happen in this part of the world. I
think it's highly likely that apples did fall from the sky.
"We're in an area with a spooky history, where there have been
witches for centuries, after all."
The Met Office said it was possible the apples had been scooped
up by a tornado.
He said: "It's hypothetically possible that a tornado could have
picked them up and that they were transported in turbulent air
until they fell."
Jim Dale, senior meteorologist, from British Weather Services,
said: "The weather we have at the moment is very volatile and we
probably have more to come.
"Essentially 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.
"Returning polar maritime air is such an unstable condition and
it basically means air returning from the polar regions which is
very unstable.
"We've all heard of the fish and frogs falling from the sky and
apples is certainly unusual because they have some weight to them
but it is not out of the realms of possibility."
