An Alva family says a chunk of ice fell from the sky and landed in their backyard. The homeowner says the skies were clear blue and can't figure out how it happened.

Cyndi Smith says she is still trying to figure it all out.

"I don't know, a space ice comet! I don't have any ideas where it came from," she said.


Tuesday afternoon was much like any other for the Smiths. Cyndi said she was outside taking care of her alpacas when she says she heard a loud thud.

"And we looked over and right over here in the grass something white had fallen," she said

That something was a chunk of ice broken into three pieces. Where it came from is the mystery.

At first, she says she thought it was kids playing around.

But Smith says this is no joke. Her two daughters were with her when she says the ice fell and her nearest neighbor is at least a quarter-mile away.

The only explanation is that it fell from the sky. And she says even that's hard to believe.

Meteorologists say it's nearly impossible it's weather related and that it's not from space.

Lubomir Gueorguiev, PhD, of Beaver Aviation South, explained it was likely a piece of ice from a passing airplane because the Smiths' house is in a direct path to Southwest Florida International Airport.

"It's kind of rare, it's not frequent, it's a rare phenomenon but it happens," he said.

Gueorguiev, a pilot himself, says ice can build up on planes at high altitudes where temperatures are 50 to 60 degrees below zero.

"Because you see when the plane flies and it's in freezing temperatures and the fuselage is freezing, it forms ice," he said.

While rare for the ice to actually break off and fall to the ground in one piece, the FAA says it's certainly possible.

It likely happens when the plane is coming in for a landing and descending into warmer air.