Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

“Anomalous falls from the sky” stories are always fun, and the following is one of the better examples I’ve seen lately.  From the “New York Daily News,” August 19, 1950:

Five ironworkers atop the Empire State Building, 1,250 feet above the ground, fled for cover yesterday when they were struck by a barley storm. 

Experts in the grain, meteorological, navigation, and chemical fields were dubious at first, but became interested later. They were at a loss to explain the strange occurrence. 

The mysterious downpour of grain started at 10 A.M., two hours after the workers had begun their job of clearing away a stainless steel platform to make room for the new television tower. 

Bill Dunn, 30, of New Haven, felt something strike his face. Then pellets started to bounce off the metal flooring. 

"I think it's starting to hail," shouted Dunn. 

The foreman, Al Johnson, of 220-13 Jamaica Ave., Queens Village, Queens, peered at the hot, misty sky and ordered the men off the exposed platform. 

Within a couple of minutes the platform was carpeted with barley. Here and there were kernels of corn.

The fall lasted five minutes. It ended as suddenly as it started. 

Ernest J. Christie, meteorologist at the U. S. Weather Bureau, said that the slight winds prevailing at that time could not have carried the grain. At 20,000 feet, however, were winds of gale force. They were blowing from the direction of the Great Plains.

At LaGuardia Field it was indicated that the grain apparently was not loosed from a plane. The control tower at the field said that at the time of the barley downpour, air traffic was shut down, except for outgoing planes. The planes which left did not pass over the midtown area. 

Chemists said that local breweries using barley could not be blamed. While barley is blown into the air during processing at the breweries, it is always in the form of dust. The barley that fell on the Empire State tower was whole kernels.