"For a few fleeting hours Sunday, people perched in the arid heights of northwest Algeria caught sight of something rarely seen: the Sahara Desert, shrouded in white. Residents of Ain Sefra, a small town surrounded by the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa, walked outside to find a dusting of snow underfoot — and more than a foot of it crowding the town's outer boundaries."
"While it's not unheard of — snow visited this landscape in December 2016, after all — the wintry weather is indeed rare for the region: As NPR's Maggie Penman pointed out at the time, the last major snowfall in Ain Sefra before that happened in 1979."
"The record or near-record cold that’s gripped Pennsylvania since Christmas and is expected to continue well into this first week of the new year presents challenges to the wildlife of the state."
"Those wild things have evolved a range of specific survival mechanisms to get through periods just like this, as well as those times when the state receives significant snowfall."
"Pennsylvania’s mammal and bird populations entered winter in good shape. Fruits and berries were abundant across most the state from summer into mid-fall. Nut trees dropped a large crop in fall. And, weeds and wildflowers threw a strong crop of seeds in the fall."
"However, none of that precludes the need for an active response against the threats of winter."
"THE BC YEARS
Thousands of years ago in the BC age, ancient civilizations had their own unique ways of insulating their homes: both Ancient Egpytians and the Vikings took advantage of the cooling properties of mud. Egyptians built their homes out of mud bricks to keep them cool, while Vikings plastered mud and straw in between the logs that made up their homes."
"Ancient Greeks were the first to use a type of insulation that’s still popular today – asbestos. This material was thought to have mystical qualities because it was resistant to flames, so the Greeks named it “asbestos,” which means “inextinguishable.”
"As millions take to the roads or prepare to fly to their destinations, three storms will be on the prowl in the central and eastern United States over the extended Christmas weekend."
Yes, it's finally snowing in Delmar.
Hour long broadcast with coverage of the snowstorm that happened 30 years ago today.
