Introduction#

Good morning, it’s January 5th, 2025, and welcome to “Here’s a Minute.” Happy new year! We’re pre-recording this about three weeks in advance, but on the off-chance any of the Northeast has received snow, happy snow day! I’m Vian Vera.

Historical Fact#

And I’m Lex Wu. On January 6th, 1996, a blizzard hit the Northeast — and it was a bad one. 47 inches of snow, or about 1.2 meters for our international audience, were recorded at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. New York City, the city that never sleeps, recorded 20 inches (or half a meter) of snow and closed schools due to snow for the first time since ‘78. About 157 people died due to various reasons, like carbon monoxide poisoning from staying in their cars.

Science Fact#

A snow storm is when any precipitation falls when the temperature is below freezing. A blizzard on the other hand is characterized by wind speeds of over 35mph, low visibility, and conditions sustained more than 3 hours— and doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with snow at all!

Writing Prompts#

You’re on the 6 train in New York, headed uptown towards the Bronx. You hear, over the intercom that everything’s shut down. Not wanting to walk 7 miles (or about 11 km) to get home, you choose to stay with a completely unknown group of subway riders who also don’t want to deal with 7 miles of walking in 20-inch snow. What happens next?

Write a poem about getting lost in a blizzard :0

Outro#

We haven’t quite got our online portal ready yet, but we’ll soon be releasing a companion podcast and website, so your work can be featured online to the world.

This podcast was written and hosted by Vian Vera and Lex Wu. Happy New Year! We’ll see you next week.