WATCH: Viral Clip Appears to Show ‘Worms’ Falling on Cars in China

Michael Foster

A strange clip from the Liaoning province of China seemed to show a street being showered with worms.

In a video posted to Twitter by the Rio Times, a line of cars can be seen being covered with “worms” as a person walks by holding an umbrella. 

“’Rain of worms’ floods Beijing,” the tweet read. “A ‘rain of worms’ flooded Beijing this week, according to videos posted on social networks. In the images, it is possible to see the ‘animals’ covering streets and vehicles.”

Citing the journal Mother Nature, MSN noted phenomena such as this sometimes occur when organisms “are swept up kilometers by a strong wind or a whirlpool.”

However, Chinese media personality Shin Shiwei claimed in reply the video couldn’t be real because “Beijing hasn’t got rainfall these days.”

The Mirror noted one theory holds the organisms weren’t actually worms but poplar flowers from a tulip tree.

“Not animals. tree blooms common in North China at this time,” one Twitter user wrote

Others called it a “prank” or questioned the authenticity of the video, with one user writing, “So it rained worms and only one video of it and it was only about 30 seconds long? Seems like a hoax to me.”

A similar event happened in Florida last December when iguanas were believed to be “raining” down from trees due to colder temperatures, WION noted.

The National Weather Service Miami explained the creatures may “slow down or become immobile” and “fall from trees” in low temperatures.

In 2015, UPI noted earthworms in Texas had bunched into large clumps, which some observers said resembled spaghetti. The clumps, or “herds,” were reportedly lined up in the middle of a road. The Texas Park and Wildlife rangers who first noted them were “puzzled” as to why they had formed such a straight line and only identified the objects as worms upon close inspection.

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