raining hay gloucestershire
It's raining hay!
The hay-vens opened up over Gloucestershire last weekend as clumps of grass fell from the sky all over the county.

Bewildered people were left clutching at straws after the strange phenomenon over Cheltenham on Saturday when they saw it raining hay.

The weather forecast had predicted dry weather with clear blue skies on the day.

And yesterday the Met Office confirmed they had received reports from all over the country, including Devon, Wiltshire, Mid Wales and Lancashire.

Weather experts at the organisation told the Echo it was not "something you see everyday" but not unusual.

She added: "We had a couple of weeks of dry weather across much of the country and that has allowed the ground to dry and warm up, and this weather has been ideal for farmers to cut grass for hay.

"This grass has been lifted into the air by some means, possibly by convection, where the ground heats the air above it causing the air to rise and carrying the grass aloft, and it is then carried along by warm thermals.

"A thermal is a warm bubble or plume of cloud-free air that rises from the ground as the ground is heated and cools the higher it gets.

"Thermals are used by birds to climb with little effort and by glider pilots to gain extra lift during a flight.

"Because the air eventually cools the thermal will break down and the grass will fall from the sky."


Cheltenham Borough Council said it did not receive any reports of falling grass.

Sarah Clark, public and environmental health team leader said: "We have not had any reports from the public about this.

"However, if residents have witnessed hay falling from the sky, the likely explanation is that meteorological conditions have allowed hay to be picked up by the wind in one area which is then deposited in another."

Nick Madigan, 42, had just got off the bus at the Arle Court Roundabout near GCHQ when he looked up and saw hay swirling in the sky above.

The self-employed bathroom fitter from Meadow Close, Fiddlers Green, said: "I looked up and I could see all this hay.

"There was no wind, so I assume it was something to do with thermals.

"It was swirling around anti-clockwise and it was quite high in the sky, about the height seagulls fly at.

"The hay must have been picked up from a nearby field and then come down.

"I used to live in Spain and you have what they call 'dust devils' there, but I have never seen anything like this."


Chris Grew, 59, had his outdoor Sunday lunch interrupted when huge lumps of hay fell on him and his wife Claire, 47, and daughter Eleanor, 16, near Devizes, Wiltshire.

The electrical engineer said: "It was quite an amazing event.

"I was even more surprised when I came into the office today to hear from colleagues that it only happened in half of the village - there seems to have been a cut-off point half way.

"It really was quite a peculiar thing to see. We were sitting having lunch in the garden when at first we say just a few little bits coming down.

"Soon it was huge great lumps coming down, covering the garden, the cars, and the caravan. It was all over the place."

Throughout history, unexpected creatures or objects have fallen to earth

In January this year the scorching heat in Queensland, Australian led to 10,000 dead bats falling from the skies.

A live leopard shark fell out of the sky and onto the 12th tee at the San Juan Hills Golf Club in California in October 2012.

In April 2011, a PE teacher and his students were covered in worms raining down.

A grapefruit-sezed meteorite crashed through the roof of a home in Auckland, New Zealand in June 2004.