05-16-2007, 11:39 AM
Wichita-area weekend weather was marked by continued heat and occasional falling corn leaves.
Kansas weather and aviation officials remained perplexed Monday at the raining corn leaf phenomenon that began Friday evening and continued sporadically through Sunday.
T. Walton of Newton was in his backyard pool Sunday evening when he saw something fluttering down.
"We jumped out of the pool and went to the alley where it landed. Sure enough, a dry corn husk. Not one, but two," he said.
"What could be next? We can hope it may rain dollar bills."
Thousands of dried corn leaves fell over east Wichita -- from about Central Avenue to 37th Street North, along Woodlawn Boulevard and on east -- each about 20 to 30 inches long.
Still, no explanation.
"There weren't strong winds; I don't see how they could have gotten blown up in the air," said Holly Kreutzer, a meteorological technician for the National Weather Service who lives in east Wichita.
An Internet search of "corn husks falling from sky" turns up at least one previous incident of corn leaf precipitation -- in the Kansas City area in 1957 -- but that was in connection with an F-5 tornado.
Indeed, it's not unusual in tornado season to hear stories of all sorts of things falling from the sky -- even fish or frogs being sucked up out of water only to rain down later.
"It's always associated with a severe storm or tornado, and they are carried high up into a thunderstorm," said Kevin Darmofal, a National Weather Service meteorologist
But, he said, "we haven't had that. The winds this time of the year are very weak. As a meteorologist, I can't think of a good reason -- other than they fell out of a plane."
If they were dropped from a plane, no one is fessing up.
"It is illegal for anyone to throw anything out of a plane," said Bruce Hollander, operations coordinator for Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and Jabara Airport.
He said he was not aware of anyone having any permission to drop anything across Wichita skies.
Col. Randy Roebuck, commander of the logistics group of the 184th Bomb Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard at McConnell Air Force Base, jokingly suggested his B-1B crews might want to drop corn husks on the Pentagon for proposing to cut the nation's B-1B bomber force by a third and move the bomb wing from McConnell.
"The Pentagon, yes; Wichita, no. We love Wichita," Roebuck said.
Darmofal said the winds each evening have only been about 12 mph -- not strong enough to carry such a large amount of corn leaves.
And Chad Pettera, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., says the amount of corn leaves falling is too much for most planes to carry.
"I don't know, it seems really weird," Pettera said. "I mean, I don't know. It's the craziest thing ever heard of."
So, the corn in Kansas remains a mystery.
ââ¬Â¢ Story originally published by:
The Wichita Eagle / KA | Beccy Tanner - Aug 7 2001
Corn Husks Rain From Wichita Sky
[Original headline: Husks of corn rain from sky ]
Wichita resident Paul Corn was amazed to see enormous husks drifting down into his backyard near 13th and Woodlawn.
For residents in some east Wichita neighborhoods Friday afternoon, the weather was particularly strange:
Partly cloudy, with a chance of corn husks.
People in homes near 13th and Woodlawn reported seeing what looked like extraordinarily large, dried corn husks spiraling down from the sky about 6 p.m.
Paul Corn (yes, that's his real name) was playing host to a family reunion in his back yard in the 1000 block of Vincent Lane on Friday afternoon. He said the family stopped swimming when they noticed something strange spiraling down from the sky.
They waited for it to land to see what it was, but the frond came to rest just over the fence in a neighbor's yard.
Then there were more. And more. Each one, about 30 inches long and 3 inches wide.
"They just kept coming down," he said. "There had to be, I don't know, a thousand of these things."
The family was curious enough to jump out of the pool and into the car, driving a short distance around the neighborhood to find more, which they did.
There is no telling how many of the leaves fell, but several were seen lying along Armour Street, between Central Avenue and 13th Street.
Officials with Weather Data Inc., a local forecasting service, said they had received no reports of the corn-husk shower. But meteorologist Jeff House seemed intrigued.
"Corn husks falling from the sky. Hmmm," he said. "That is odd."
Could they have been stirred up by a tornado in some Iowa cornfield? Blown hundreds of miles through thick summer air, only to billow down on back yards and driveways in east Wichita?
"That's a good thought," House said. "But no chance. Not today."
Our region -- in fact, the whole country -- was tornado-free on Friday. It wasn't even particularly windy, House said. Just really hot.
So maybe August turned that Iowa corn into popcorn, and the remnant husks exploded into the atmosphere?
"Doubtful," House said. "Whatever it was, it was probably caused by man."
Some residents speculated that the leaves fell from a plane. Air traffic authorities could not be reached for comment Friday night.
One more theory: University of Nebraska fans were behind it. Gearing up for another Cornhusker football season, they decided to blanket their southern rivals in a giant -- and ingenious, we might add -- Cornhusker Practical Joke.
Bill Harper is a member of the Wichita-based Kansas Cornhusker Club. "We may live in the heart of Kansas," says the group's Web site. "But our hearts belong to the HUSKERS!!"
Harper denied having anything to do with Friday's incident.
"Oh, not that I know of. I don't think any of us are behind it," Harper said. He noted, however, that the group's annual picnic is scheduled for 5 p.m. today, at the Sedgwick County Extension building at 21st Street and Ridge Road.
Mike Nieman, a witness to the mysterious corn episode, was visiting Wichita from Los Angeles. He said it seemed fitting for such a strange thing to happen in Kansas.
"It's just a magical place," he joked. "It's the land of Oz."
http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/nhusks.htm
More sources
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/cornhusks...ay07.shtml
Kansas weather and aviation officials remained perplexed Monday at the raining corn leaf phenomenon that began Friday evening and continued sporadically through Sunday.
T. Walton of Newton was in his backyard pool Sunday evening when he saw something fluttering down.
"We jumped out of the pool and went to the alley where it landed. Sure enough, a dry corn husk. Not one, but two," he said.
"What could be next? We can hope it may rain dollar bills."
Thousands of dried corn leaves fell over east Wichita -- from about Central Avenue to 37th Street North, along Woodlawn Boulevard and on east -- each about 20 to 30 inches long.
Still, no explanation.
"There weren't strong winds; I don't see how they could have gotten blown up in the air," said Holly Kreutzer, a meteorological technician for the National Weather Service who lives in east Wichita.
An Internet search of "corn husks falling from sky" turns up at least one previous incident of corn leaf precipitation -- in the Kansas City area in 1957 -- but that was in connection with an F-5 tornado.
Indeed, it's not unusual in tornado season to hear stories of all sorts of things falling from the sky -- even fish or frogs being sucked up out of water only to rain down later.
"It's always associated with a severe storm or tornado, and they are carried high up into a thunderstorm," said Kevin Darmofal, a National Weather Service meteorologist
But, he said, "we haven't had that. The winds this time of the year are very weak. As a meteorologist, I can't think of a good reason -- other than they fell out of a plane."
If they were dropped from a plane, no one is fessing up.
"It is illegal for anyone to throw anything out of a plane," said Bruce Hollander, operations coordinator for Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and Jabara Airport.
He said he was not aware of anyone having any permission to drop anything across Wichita skies.
Col. Randy Roebuck, commander of the logistics group of the 184th Bomb Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard at McConnell Air Force Base, jokingly suggested his B-1B crews might want to drop corn husks on the Pentagon for proposing to cut the nation's B-1B bomber force by a third and move the bomb wing from McConnell.
"The Pentagon, yes; Wichita, no. We love Wichita," Roebuck said.
Darmofal said the winds each evening have only been about 12 mph -- not strong enough to carry such a large amount of corn leaves.
And Chad Pettera, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., says the amount of corn leaves falling is too much for most planes to carry.
"I don't know, it seems really weird," Pettera said. "I mean, I don't know. It's the craziest thing ever heard of."
So, the corn in Kansas remains a mystery.
ââ¬Â¢ Story originally published by:
The Wichita Eagle / KA | Beccy Tanner - Aug 7 2001
Corn Husks Rain From Wichita Sky
[Original headline: Husks of corn rain from sky ]
Wichita resident Paul Corn was amazed to see enormous husks drifting down into his backyard near 13th and Woodlawn.
For residents in some east Wichita neighborhoods Friday afternoon, the weather was particularly strange:
Partly cloudy, with a chance of corn husks.
People in homes near 13th and Woodlawn reported seeing what looked like extraordinarily large, dried corn husks spiraling down from the sky about 6 p.m.
Paul Corn (yes, that's his real name) was playing host to a family reunion in his back yard in the 1000 block of Vincent Lane on Friday afternoon. He said the family stopped swimming when they noticed something strange spiraling down from the sky.
They waited for it to land to see what it was, but the frond came to rest just over the fence in a neighbor's yard.
Then there were more. And more. Each one, about 30 inches long and 3 inches wide.
"They just kept coming down," he said. "There had to be, I don't know, a thousand of these things."
The family was curious enough to jump out of the pool and into the car, driving a short distance around the neighborhood to find more, which they did.
There is no telling how many of the leaves fell, but several were seen lying along Armour Street, between Central Avenue and 13th Street.
Officials with Weather Data Inc., a local forecasting service, said they had received no reports of the corn-husk shower. But meteorologist Jeff House seemed intrigued.
"Corn husks falling from the sky. Hmmm," he said. "That is odd."
Could they have been stirred up by a tornado in some Iowa cornfield? Blown hundreds of miles through thick summer air, only to billow down on back yards and driveways in east Wichita?
"That's a good thought," House said. "But no chance. Not today."
Our region -- in fact, the whole country -- was tornado-free on Friday. It wasn't even particularly windy, House said. Just really hot.
So maybe August turned that Iowa corn into popcorn, and the remnant husks exploded into the atmosphere?
"Doubtful," House said. "Whatever it was, it was probably caused by man."
Some residents speculated that the leaves fell from a plane. Air traffic authorities could not be reached for comment Friday night.
One more theory: University of Nebraska fans were behind it. Gearing up for another Cornhusker football season, they decided to blanket their southern rivals in a giant -- and ingenious, we might add -- Cornhusker Practical Joke.
Bill Harper is a member of the Wichita-based Kansas Cornhusker Club. "We may live in the heart of Kansas," says the group's Web site. "But our hearts belong to the HUSKERS!!"
Harper denied having anything to do with Friday's incident.
"Oh, not that I know of. I don't think any of us are behind it," Harper said. He noted, however, that the group's annual picnic is scheduled for 5 p.m. today, at the Sedgwick County Extension building at 21st Street and Ridge Road.
Mike Nieman, a witness to the mysterious corn episode, was visiting Wichita from Los Angeles. He said it seemed fitting for such a strange thing to happen in Kansas.
"It's just a magical place," he joked. "It's the land of Oz."
http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/nhusks.htm
More sources
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/cornhusks...ay07.shtml