Winter storm won’t keep Santa away tonight; track him on NORAD

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The bitter cold, strong winds, and downed power lines will not keep Santa Claus away tonight. The North American Aerospace Defense Command is the military agency known for tracking Santa as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve.

NORAD is responsible for monitoring and defending the skies above North America. But, the agency also runs NORAD tracks Santa, which allows people to follow his global Christmas journey through its website, social media channels, and mobile app.

It’s not just children watching NORAD either. My coworker, Lucy, and I, have had fun all evening watching Rudolph and the other reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh around the globe.

This year the agency has about 1,5000 volunteers working on Christmas Eve to answer phone calls from children who want to know Santa’s location and delivery schedule.

NORAD’S holiday tradition began in 1955 after a child mistakenly called a Colorado military command asking to speak to Santa. More calls came in so, the commander on duty assigned an officer to answer the Santa calls, and the tradition has been popular ever since.

Sometime before midnight Santa will be in Rochester. As of this writing, he is currently in Argentina, and has delivered over 4 billion presents.