How NORAD tracks Santa on Christmas Eve
Every year, for the past 68 years, NORAD tracks the global progress of Santa and his sleigh. John Cornelio from NORAD explains how they track this highly anticipated mission.
Transcript
00:00 NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
00:04 Every day they protect our airspace, but every year, for the past 65 years,
00:10 they're also tracking the global progress of Santa Claus and his sleigh.
00:15 Joining us right now is John Cornello.
00:19 He is NORAD's Chief Strategic Outreach and Command Information.
00:24 And, of course, NORAD has one of the most important jobs in the world,
00:28 especially this time of the year.
00:30 And thank you so much for joining us here this morning.
00:34 Tell us about this mission and how you are able to track Santa's progress on Christmas Eve.
00:42 Thanks for having us first.
00:44 And this is a mission that we've been doing actually now for 68 years.
00:49 And started way back in 1955.
00:54 Operationally, the way we do this is we know that Santa is going to depart the North Pole
01:00 somewhere for us around 4 o'clock mountain time.
01:03 We're going to pick up a heat signature typically.
01:07 We'll pick him up initially with our radar system called a North Warning System.
01:13 And then very quickly thereafter, we're going to pick up a signal typically comes from Rudolph's nose.
01:18 And using our satellites, we will track him largely throughout the--for about the next 18 to 20 hours,
01:25 we'll track him that way.
01:26 And then ultimately, then when they enter North America, when Santa and the reindeer enter North America,
01:31 we start tracking him using our fighter jets.
01:33 And those fighter jets are both from Canada and the United States.
01:37 These are the exact systems we use 24/7, 365,
01:43 to keep the countries of the United States and Canada safe each and every day.
01:47 Mr. Carnelio, how do families and children follow Santa's course?
01:53 What will they see on the NORAD app and website?
01:58 Yeah, great question.
01:59 So we really have two primary ways for folks to get--to kind of know what's going on.
02:05 One is our website.
02:07 That's www.noradsanta.org.
02:10 We strongly encourage people to go there.
02:12 They can go there now and see, you know, games and, you know, there's apps on there.
02:18 There's music on there.
02:20 There's just good information about who we are and what we do.
02:25 So I strongly encourage people to do that.
02:27 And on the 24th, you can go there and find out exactly where Santa is.
02:30 But even more importantly, we'll have a volunteer group of more than 1,000 people
02:38 that will answer phone calls on the 24th.
02:41 The number is 1-877-HI-NORAD.
02:44 Call us.
02:45 We will tell you exactly where Santa is.
02:47 And also, we can typically tell you about when he's going to arrive at their house,
02:52 which is normally between 9 o'clock and midnight, but only after the children have gone to bed.
02:57 Oh, that's right.
02:58 That's right.
02:59 He knows.
03:00 All right.
03:01 What about weather?
03:02 How does cold air and severe weather impact Santa's trip and NORAD's work?
03:06 Yeah, you know, we have seen just a wide array of different weather challenges for Santa
03:12 over these last 68 years.
03:13 The good news is this.
03:15 No matter what that weather challenge will be, Santa will make his way through it.
03:19 That's part of the reason why Rudolph is such an important member of that team.
03:24 And we know that Santa will ultimately be able to get to all the good children's homes
03:28 on that journey on the 24th.
03:31 And one last question, Mr. Cornelio.
03:33 What about technology?
03:34 How's it changed?
03:35 How is NORAD better able to track Santa today?
03:39 Yeah, I mean, we just have a lot of other applications now that people can go to, whether
03:47 it be Alexa, OnStar, things like that.
03:50 There's a lot of different ways now.
03:52 Again, you can go to the NORADSanta.org website.
03:56 It'll tell you exactly all the different ways that you can track Santa on the 24th.
04:00 All right.
04:01 John Cornelio, NORAD's Chief of Strategic Outreach and Command Information.
04:06 Again, thanks for joining us.
04:08 And make sure the kids are in bed early on Christmas Eve.
04:12 John, thank you so much for your time and everything else that NORAD does to protect our country.