According to the Iowa Almanac, one of Iowa’s most unusual weather stories unfolded in Dubuque on June 16, 1882, when a violent hailstorm reportedly delivered more than just ice from the clouds.
The publication recounts that the storm swept through eastern Iowa with exceptionally large hail. In some locations, hail fell for nearly 15 minutes, with stones measuring anywhere from about an inch to an astonishing 17 inches in circumference. One reportedly weighed nearly two pounds, while Washington Park in Dubuque was said to have been blanketed with hailstones the size of lemons. Property damage was estimated at roughly $5,000, a significant sum for the era.
After the storm, the foreman of Dubuque’s Novelty Iron Works examined several unusually dense hailstones. When he melted them, he reportedly discovered bits of gravel, grass and dirt trapped inside. Even more remarkably, two of the larger hailstones allegedly contained frogs.
The bizarre account of frogs falling from the sky has become one of Iowa’s enduring weather legends. Iowa Almanac notes that a similar incident had been reported less than a decade earlier in Kansas City.
Meteorologists have long suggested a possible explanation: a tornado or powerful updraft may have lifted small frogs high into the atmosphere before carrying them miles away and depositing them back to Earth during the storm.
While the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs” remains a figure of speech, Iowa Almanac says history contains at least one curious account of frogs arriving with the hail in Dubuque on June 16, 1882.
