#winter

Niagara Falls Becomes A Living Ice SculptureA once-in-a-generation winter storm that killed around 34 people in New York was able to turn Niagara Falls into a frozen winter landscape. One look in the location and you’ll imagine that someone shot a big freeze ray of sorts to render it in its current state.Well, thanks to the sub-zero temperatures brought on by the storm Elliot, the world-famous tourist destination became a gigantic living ice sculpture. This phenomenon is the first time in decades that Niagara Falls stopped flowing, even in freezing temperatures. It was so cold that even its strong current was not enough to combat the storm. According to Niagara Parks, the Falls only stopped flowing once in 1848. The storm was able to stop the flow of water by freezing and blanketing the boulders, trees, and railings near the water. Aerial photographs have been taken to immortalize this very rare event. Check out the video below to learn more!Image credit: Mian Rizwan#falls #winter #storms #Elliot #Canada #America #NiagaraFalls #NiagaraParks 

The Resort With The Deepest Snow In AmericaWith the winter season still in the country, there are places that have reported higher elevations due to abundant snowfall. In fact, one of the known resorts in America has reported a whopping 165 inches of snow at their location.Said resort with the deepest recorded snow is Mammoth Resorts, a four-season mountain resort in California. Located in Mammoth Mountain, the establishment typically experiences winter from early November into May. The location is mostly known as a great area for skiing and winter activities. As we’ve mentioned earlier, this location has reported that they’ve got 165 inches of snow, making the Mammoth Resorts the deepest snow among the country’s major ski resorts. According to KTLA, this measurement could increase as the season progresses. “That could be just the beginning, with snow in the forecast every day into mid-January and some models calling for up to 25” of water over the next several weeks,” KTLA stated. “General rule of thumb is ten inches of snow to every inch of water.”Other places such as Bear Mountain, Boreal Mountain, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Northstar, Snow Valley, and Mountain High have recorded feet upon feet of snow piling up. Image credit: Wikimedia commons#winter #snow #deepestsnow #resorts #MammothMountain #MammothResorts

Plateau Pikas Survive the Harsh Tibetan Winter by Eating Yak PoopSome animals deal with cold winters by going into hibernation, some burrow underground to stay warm and subsist on stockpiled food, while others migrate away to warmer climes but the cute fluffball-like animal called the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau did none of these. Instead, they continue to forage in the cold.As the temperatures in their high-altitude home routinely dip to -30° C (-22° F), the grass that they typically eat becomes dry and brittle so the plateau pikas have to resort to a different and very unusual type of food. They eat yak poop.Ecophysiologist John Speakman at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and colleagues measured the temperature and daily energy expenditure of 156 plateau pikas and found that they reduce their metabolism by almost 30 percent, partly by cooling their bodies a couple of degrees at night and becoming less active during the day.At sites where there are yaks, there were more pikas but they were even less active. But why would the presence of yaks change the plateau pikas, wondered the researchers. They stumbled on the answer when they “found a sort of half-eaten yak turd in one of the burrows,” explained Speakman. The abundant yak poop could serve as an easily digestible meal that “massively reduces the amount of time [pikas] need to spend on the surface,” he added.Image: Pika (Ochotona curzoniae) in eastern Tibet by Kunsang/Wikimedia Commons#pika #plateaupika #winter #yak #poop #winter #zoology #yakpoop #hibernation