It once rained golf balls in Florida.

U.S. History

A ccording to the Visit Florida website, the city of Punta Gorda "is a family-friendly getaway offering saltwater and freshwater adventures, waterfront shopping, award-winning cuisine, family-friendly attractions, and plenty of old-Florida charm." Left unsaid is the possibility that visitors may find themselves running for cover amid a golf ball-infused rainstorm.

That apparently was the situation that unfurled in the area in the late hours of Labor Day in 1969. It had indeed rained that night, according to a local newspaper report, but instead of simply finding the usual poststorm moisture on lawns and trees, residents encountered "dozens and dozens" of golf balls "in the gutters, on the street, along the sidewalks, and at Punta Gorda Isles." Local police did their civic duty of cleaning up the clutter, to the point where one even expressed exhaustion over the effort. Sadly, authorities failed in the ultimate task of determining just what caused this unusual accumulation of pockmarked white spheres.

Popular Mechanics offered one plausible explanation: The city regularly experiences waterspouts (essentially tornadoes over water), which could have sucked up a torrent of balls from a pond at a local golf course, before unloading them back to Earth in a rainstorm. It certainly makes sense from a scientific standpoint and provides another perspective to the "freshwater adventures" promised to tourists in this Gulf Coast locale.

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By the Numbers

Minimum diameter (in inches) of a U.S.-regulated golf ball

1.68

Wind speed (in mph) of the average waterspout

Did you know?

A shark once fell on a California golf course.

About the only thing more unlikely than a golf ball-infused rainstorm is the possibility of a live shark dropping from the sky. And yet, the proof was there for the viewing when a 2-foot-long leopard shark was discovered near the 12th tee at California's San Juan Hills Golf Club in October 2012. In this case, the probable cause was attributed to a large bird of prey plucking the shark from the nearby ocean before losing its grip, a theory supported by the puncture wounds found on the aquatic creature. But while no witnesses were able to confirm the circumstances of the shark's arrival, the story at least had a happy ending. Club employees were able to keep the fish alive by temporarily storing it in a salt water-filled bucket before returning it to the ocean, ensuring it could live out its life free of worries over errant chip shots and careless golf cart drivers.