1950, November 10: Sheep Killed by Falling Ice

The Legend:

On November 10, 1950, on a farm alongside the Bristol Moor in North Devon and Somerset, England, Edward Latham was disturbed to hear his collie barking furiously, something the dog only did when something was wrong. Latham got up and went out, but saw nothing amiss; it was a chilly, clear night. Assuming the dog was just making noise, Latham retired for the evening.

        In the morning the collie was again barking furiously, this time in the field about fifty yards from the house. Upon investigating Latham discovered one of his sheep dead, with a diagonal gash down the shoulders and neck that looked as if it had been struck with an axe. next to the animal was a fourteen pound chunk of ice, embedded eight inches into the sod.

        Latham later told authorities: "That sheep had been killed as if it had been struck by lightning! Around the field and down the roadway I found many other chunks of clear, hard ice, most of them the size of dinner plates or larger. I had never seen its equal!"

        The British Air Ministry concluded the ice had not come from planes or a storm, then oddly added "The conditions do not suggest that this is any normal meteorological or weather phenomenon..."

Unreliable

        At the moment I have just one source for this account -- Frank Edwards' factually challenged Stranger Than Science (1959) -- so it is marked both as 'needs investigation' and 'unreliable'. I will update this account as I have time!