For more than 30 years, Alex Chadwick has been bringing the world to NPR listeners as an NPR News producer, program host and currently senior correspondent. He's reported from every continent except Antarctica.
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Animals in south Florida don’t have to worry much about winter cold – and indeed many migrants from areas farther north find suitable living conditions here. But, a trip to the beach or on a rare blustery day sometimes makes one wonder. How do ducks, herons, egrets, and other birds tolerate wading or swimming in cold weather? Aquatic birds, for example, have bare skinny legs with leg muscles placed among insulating feathers.Blood vessels going to and from the very few muscles in the legs and feet lie right next to one another, and cold blood going back into the body is warmed by warmer blood coming from the body – and is nearly the same temperature as the blood circulating in the well-insulated body.
Every year during the holidays veterans who have died over the years are remembered with a fresh pine wreath laid on their graves at cemeteries across the U.S. and in Southwest Florida.
‘Tis the season for holly, hot chocolate and the tradition of singing Christmas carols. But what is the origin of some of your favorite holiday classics?
FEMA has confirmed that Fort Myers Beach has earned a Class 5 rating in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System, a step in the recovery from Hurricane Ian that could earn residents financial relief. The rating was formally confirmed in a December letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It is also a national recognition for the Town’s flood mitigation and governance efforts.
If you've watched the goings on at the American bald eagle nest along Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers then you are one of more than 231 MILLION viewers of the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam over the years. And you are well aware that tragic and positive outcomes go hand-in-hand there.
The last five years have been warmer than average, except 2022, where temperatures were the coldest since the 1980s across some official locations. How about the weather for this year?