In 1876, a farm in Bath County, Kentucky became the site of one of America’s weirdest weather reports: pieces of raw meat-like material appeared to fall from the sky.

The incident became known as the Kentucky Meat Shower. According to reports from the time, chunks landed across part of the Crouch family farm near Olympia Springs. Some witnesses described pieces roughly the size of snowflakes, while others said larger bits were scattered on the ground and fences.

Naturally, people tried to figure out what it was. Samples were examined by scientists, and some were identified as animal tissue, possibly lung or muscle. The most accepted explanation today is not “meat rain” in the normal weather sense, but something grosser: vultures may have regurgitated carrion while flying overhead, causing the mysterious shower below.

So yes, Kentucky once had a reported meat shower, and the likely explanation is somehow even stranger than the headline.