In 1625, a remarkable downpour of frogs was reported to have hit Tournai, in present-day Belgium, startling the local population. This event is one of many historical accounts of animal rain, a phenomenon now attributed to waterspouts sweeping up small creatures and depositing them elsewhere. The Tournai frog rain became a celebrated case in early modern chronicles of natural wonders.

Reports of the Tournai frog rain were widely circulated in pamphlets and natural histories, influencing the Baroque fascination with marvels and prodigies. Poets and dramatists of the period, including those in the metaphysical tradition, sometimes referenced such strange rains as metaphors for divine intervention or the inversion of natural order.