On July 2, 1843, a 2-foot-long alligator famously "fell from the sky" during a severe thunderstorm in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Local journalists from The Charleston Mercury covered the story. The article described a strong thunderstorm that developed on a very hot Sunday. St. Paul’s Church was reportedly struck by lightning but not harmed. No one was reported dead following the storm, but an alligator appeared at the corner of Wentworth and Anson Streets after the storm had cleared. While no one saw the alligator actually fall from the sky, it was decided that he had to have rained down since he couldn’t have gotten there any other way. The widely accepted meteorological explanation for this bizarre event is that a waterspout — a tornado that forms over a body of water —developed over a nearby river or creek, swept the small alligator up into the sky, and then dropped it onto the city streets as the storm dissipated and lost its wind energy. The National Weather Service's Charleston office still keeps the legend on their local weather history records.
