Early in January 2000, southern Spain was bombarded with at least 30 rather large blocks of ice, some weighing 4 kilos (about 9 pounds). Chemists at the University of Valencia found none of the microorganisms that would identify the ice chunks as falling off aircraft with leaky toilets. One frozen projectile hit an automobile, but the driver was not hurt; another glanced off the shoulder of an elderly woman living in Almeria.
As to be expected, the Spanish news-papers played the phenomena for all they could. Also to be expected were a few fraudulent reports. It was all great fun, but scientific explanations for the bona fide hydrometeors are lacking.
(Anonymous; "Fortean Ice," New Scientist, p. 5, January 29, 2000. We also referred to several items posted on the Web. Cr. E. Murphy and COUD-I.)
Comment. It is extremely rare for ordinary meteorites to hit humans or their structures. Yet, in this icy Spanish fusillade involving only a small handful of ice chunks there were two humans Involved. Suspicious!
