Every year during the biggest annual holiday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks Santa Claus with its state of the art surveillance technology.
Here are some fascinating and remarkable snippets of information about Santa, courtesy of NORAD and writer Matt Heid.
- How Santa travels the entire world in only 24 hours:
According to NORAD intelligence reports, Santa does not experience Christmas at the same time we do. What seems like 24 hours to us, can be days, weeks or even months for Santa. Santa would not want to rush the important job of delivering presents to children and spreading joy to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.
- Santa’s height and weight (before cookies):
Based on flight profile data gathered from over 50 years of NORAD’s radar and satellite tracking, they concluded that Santa is probably about 1,7m tall and weighs approximately 118kg (before cookies).
- The technical details about Santa’s sleigh, which NORAD has intensively studied for more than 50 years:
- Designer and Builder – K Kringle & Elves, Inc.
- Probable First Flight – Dec 24, 343 B.C
- Home Base – North Pole
- Length – 75 cc (candy canes) or 150 lp (lollipops)
- Width – 40 cc / 80 lp
- Height – 55 cc / 110 lp
- Note: Length, width and height are without reindeer.
- Weight at takeoff – 75 000 gd (gumdrops)
- Passenger weight at takeoff – Santa Claus, 118 kilograms
- Weight of gifts at takeoff – 60 000 tons
- Propulsion – Nine rp (reindeer power)
- Armament – Antlers (purely defensive)
- Fuel – Hay, oats and carrots (for reindeer)
- Emissions – Classified
- Climbing speed – One “T” (Twinkle of an eye)
- Max speed – Faster than starlight
- What Santa does when he’s intercepted by NORAD fighter jets:
According to NORAD, over the past 50 years, their fighter jets have intercepted Santa many, many times. When the jets intercept Santa, they tip their wings to say, “Hello Santa! – NORAD is tracking you again this year!”. Santa always waves. He loves to see the pilots.
- How Santa gets down chimneys:
To be honest, even NORAD hasn’t been able to figure this one out. Although NORAD has different hypotheses and theories as to how Santa actually gets down the chimneys, they don’t have definitive information to explain the magical phenomenon.
See what Santa is up to as we speak, HERE
Source: https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/five-things-you-never-knew-about-santa-claus-courtesy-of-the-norad-santa-tracker/
