Hearted Youtube comments on Casual Earth (@casualearth-dandavis) channel.

  1. Because there is so little rainfall on these islands, there's little run-off and underwater visibility is superb. Great for divers and snorkelers. Also, hurricanes are extremely rare here. That, plus the clear skies and strong winds, make it a great place to visit during the summer.
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  2. I did my senior thesis in college on this exact topic several years ago. This video almost feels like you read my notes from my defense giving this presentation. The biggest takeaway from my research was what you briefly touched on with their dormancy behaviors. In almost every case I could find, they continued to bask as temperatures approached freezing, to the point that many would develop moderate to severe respiratory infections in temperatures around 30F-45F, even if they did survive a short cold spell. These respiratory infections were often fatal even when treated (cannot remember the source, but I believe it was a smaller institute conducting research near Jacksonville, FL). Gopher tortoise burrows, like you explained, would be one of their only refuges if they were to make it to the panhandle due to how deep they go, and those are becoming scarcer by the year. If they were to make it into the limestone caves that you start to see in the Appalachian Mountain Range, they would have a chance in the foothills of the southern range, providing better dormancy behaviors were selected for. I concluded they would likely not expand much farther than the ranges of the American crocodile without further selective pressures, and at most make it as far north as mangrove forests in the relatively near future with a bit of luck on their side. Props to the video! Really took me back and many of these studies were not around when I did mine. Super cool to see more about it six years later.
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  3. This was all so very interesting. Thank you for enlightening us about this region of the world, culturally, historically, and geographically. You taught me things I did not know, which is saying something given that I was born in Venezuela and lived in Valencia, a city a few miles inland along the central coast of the country. This area is quite tropical with lots of rain. However, as you stated in the video the coastal areas to the west and further east of the country are quite dry. As a child I traveled several times to Isla Margarita and I remember the arid landscapes, the cacti. I had no idea that there existed a tiny white tailed deer, so I'm glad to know that. Thank you. Our family also traveled to Coro, just south of the Peninsula de Paraguana, in the state of Falcon, where there was a desert with high golden sand dunes. Another hot and very dry region of the country. I am curious what drew you to want to make a video about this particular region of South America? You definitely did it justice.
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  4. As a person who lives in Central Somalia 🇸🇴 i always used to ask myself why my country is hot desert while the neighbouring countries aren't. Thanks for explaining this important topic.
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  5. I was born in Rasht and people outside my country are always baffled when I describe my region's climate :)
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  6. I'm going to get "not a bad deal for a humble seal" tattooed on my forehead.
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  7. Dude this was EXACTLY what I was looking for. I was just so confused on what could cause the clouds to go south so consistently to make that much raid fall/such a rain shadow. The winds totally made sense and I have always wondered about those parts of Turkey and now it makes even more sense. I love micro climates they are so interesting. I live in a very special/particular place, Eureka California. It's basically perpetually 60 degrees and cloudy. But if I dive 20 mins south it can shoot up to high 80s or 90s in the summer, but once you come back and hit a certain spot, it's all cloud cover or foggy/misty. There's not a whole lot of habitable area for urbanization around us, it's all mountains. It's the one flat place on the coast. The whole area is basically a big alluvial flat from river run off over thousands of years so it's very swampy already and with the mountains right behind us, the clouds sit here or rain on their way up. Part of the bay is just slightly above sea level that it goes bare when the tide is out. Coming from L.A and the California Central Valley where it was basically the same always HOT, and then HOT days and COLD nights in the winter.. it was so facinating the difference. It made me much more curious of all the different types of climates and geological things that can cause different ones to exist that defy the norm. Thanks so much for this and I hope you have others/make more!
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  8. Great video - every time you release I'm waiting for it to blow up, the production quality and content can't go under the radar forever. Even if it doesn't happen I'm very happy you make these great, entertaining and informative videos unlike any others I've really come across, and your interest and passion for this niche of topics (geography, meterology, biology) really shines through.
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  9. I am studying seasonal rainfall in this region for my PhD and this video encapsulates basically every way in which this region is so dry. Similar to El Nino (and La Nina), the Indian Ocean undergoes a similar type of variability called the IOD (Indian ocean dipole). Occasionally, when SST (sea surface temperature) anomalies are high in the west, such that the water temperature is above average, this can (for a brief period) increase rainfall in east Africa. This typically only occurs in the 'short rains' season from October-December since positive IOD events only tend to occur following boreal summer. positive IOD events increased rainfall in east Africa in short rains 2023 and 2019, bringing flooding and a high impact on the people who live there.
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  10. I'm from Maracaibo, Venezuela. I am impressed not only by the oceanographical but by the historic accuracy of this video, as well. By the way, my grandmother, Felicia GĂłmez, was guaiquerĂ­. I loved this from head to toe.
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  11. Just like my ex, she was hot, but had a very cold heart 😔
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  12. Wow, lots of advantages I never considered. The tracheid size advantage and the fog advantage were completely new to me. And the idea that poor soil favors conifers because they don't need as much nutrients for all the leaf turnover is amazing. Thanks for the video!
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  13. In some places of the neighbor state of Nuevo LeĂłn you can also grow tropical plants peacefully until a random freeze wipes them out. Before the 2021 freeze there were over 110 coconut palms scattered around the city of Monterrey, after the freeze only a little more than a half survived. Some of them were in high altitudes in houses that surrounded the mountains of the city where "snow" fell which impressed me. A lot of tropical plants came back with all the amount of rain we've been getting since tropical storm Alberto. Our climate is mostly subtropical but when rain falls and the sun comes out, it feels like tropical.
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  14. Good thing I just bought this 8 ton industrial barrel of bird poop 👍
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  15. I'm from the port of Veracruz, the winter Nortes (cold northern winds) really puts a chill to your bones… it is really hard to explain to outsiders how one day you can be chilling at the beach at 30°C, then 12 hours later you’ll be facing 50mph winds and 15°C temperature drops
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  16. Love these presentations--the careful research and care for authenticity is appreciated. If there are any compelling reasons to cover the accomplishments of Alexander von Humboldt, whose work seems very much to intersect the interests of this series, I would be delighted to watch it. Having grown up near the confluence of several streams and rivers, I'm also intrigued with riparian flora and fauna. I've often wondered if they are the primary determinants of the surrounding biome's profile, or vice-versa.
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  17. Does the ability to defend oneself in more diffult to traverse landscapes high up in the mountains play a role?
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  18. A different dimension in examining highlands is their configuration. Most mountains are produced by plate tectonics which creates ranges or a linearity of the mountains. This enhances interaction with surrounding lowlands because of a narrower pattern resulting in a proximity to the lowlands. This would be the case in Guatemala or much of Latin America. The most difficult highland environment is a massif which is a block of mountains. The most famous being the Massif Central of France which funnels transportation to its sides. I live on the edge of a massif, the Olympic peninsula of Washington state. There are no interior transportation passages through the mountain block except for a few foot trails. The difficulty of travel was so great that parts of the interior were unexplored until the latter part of the 1800's. All transport routes are along the edges. A great video and thought provoking ideas. I was a Professor of Geography for 32 years so my compliment would be more meaningful than some. I hope that you can pursue more geography studies. It is a neglected subject, sadly today.
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  19. Excellent! An inspiring video. It makes me curious about other biogeographical patterns!
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  20. I visited San Francisco last July and wondered this very thing. Since it was summer and me being from the east coast, I packed a bunch of shorts and t shirts just to find out the high for that day was 62 degrees lol.
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  21. As a venezuelan that had visited many times Araya´s and Paraguanå´s peninsulas, I enyoyed very much this explanation. A visually stunning portrait of salt explotation in Araya in the 1940s can be found in Margot Benacerraf´s documentary "Araya", that certainly is worth a look
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  22. I'm a native of the island Aruba, thanks for explaining our unique ecosystem 🌵
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  23. I’m a grad student studying corals in Curaçao, and have learned that the coral reef ecosystems in the area are doing much better right now compared to other reefs in the tropics. One reason is the upwelling in the region delivering cooler water, but another is the lack of precipitation. Less rain creates less runoff from cities and agriculture that would harm the health of coral reefs. Extremely unique location. Love the video, keep up the great work!
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  24. I crossed the entire black sea coast and into Georgia, the eastern region is the same. Extremely green, I was shocked at the tea farms on the mountainsides of the black sea coast. Amazing place. I also visited southern Azerbaijan, lenkeren had as much humidity as any tropical country, probably more.
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  25. Great content. I live in Japan's Tohoku region and the prefectures facing the Sea of Japan are famous for their harsh winter. It's always a crazy experience for me, a Southeast Asian, whenever I go to Akita and see the amount of snow there.
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  26. I live in Eastern Ontario (Ottawa area) and it really floors me the way the transition to the subarctic works in Ontario. As you drive west towards the Great Lakes, you begin moving slightly north--only a couple degrees--but the landscape changes dramatically. Due to how relatively close this area is to Hudson Bay--which is fully-Arctic--you get forests of stunted jackpines and endless peat bogs as you would in the Arctic, but only a few degrees north of the Ottawa Valley,which is very much a riverine environment: lots of deciduous trees and flowering plants. Quite a few wineries in the Ottawa and St Lawrence valleys, and WOW do we grow a lot of corn here. Makes that drive up to Sudbury and beyond quite a wild trip when you think about it--not many places you can go where a mostly-westward drive will take you to the lower reaches of the Arctic.
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  27. As a Guatemalan myself, it struck me hard the intro of the video. I really, really, don't asociate civilization with lowlands. All the contrary, it's in the mountains. It was the weirdest feeling I had today, while watching a YouTube video 😅🤣
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  28. Thank you, Daniel, for an excellent presentation. I love your channel and learn so much, often diving deeper using your footnotes. Thank you for everything.
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  29. I always wondered why the West was mostly conifers and the East was mostly decidous trees, the dry summer and pacific coast fog explain the situation. When I was young I thought conifers only grew in really cold places but there parts of California that have conifer forest that are much warmer than the deciduous forests back east. California is interesting you find conifer forests on the foggy coastline but go a little bit inland and you find deciduous forests, then once you gain a few thousand feet of altitude you are back into the conifer forest. I live in Seattle now and the forest is mostly conifers but near the rivers/wetlands you can find large groves of deciduous trees. Same thing in Alaska the forest is mostly conifer but you can find some big groves of decidous trees near rivers and wetlands.
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  30. Wow, I was actually very skeptical of wasps (and their ecological usefulness) but now I appreciate them! Thanks, great content as always
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  31. Really interesting about the thermo sensitivity and basking between different species, I always wondered how alligators in Florida survive the frosts and freezes that come through the area occasionally. Do you know why the Indian subcontinent appears to be bordered by a huge flatland right before the Himalayas start? It appears almost like a shield all the way from the Bengal bay to the Arabian Sea, forming a low lying separation from the more hilly and mountainous interior and the extreme heights of the Himalayas? I would expect the terrain to slowly get more and more crumpled and elevated as we approach them rather than such a stark difference
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  32. Fascinating vid as always, as someone wondering about these topics and just observing the facts without thinking about them too hard, you explain things very clearly and I always feel I learnt more about climatology. My hometown Dalien, China is surrounded by water on three sides, but the Siberian high and its peak in January makes the coldest days almost always mid-January, though recent years early February cold snaps are extremely common and overall February is deffo way colder than December, often on par with January. As for summer, the oceanic effect gets amped up because of the monsoon, so it has a very strong seasonal lag from spring to summer, temps always peak in August. This asymmetry makes a long spring and short autumn always, and we even have a saying that 'the neck of autumn is short'. Thank you for your work, cheers!
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  33. I was born in Rasht. I have not seen my rain city for 4 years. I have been living in Germany. I love Germany but I also miss that amazing climate and people's warmth and love.
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  34. Thanks so much for this video. I have been trying to answer this exact question after doing some research on Dodoma, Tanzania. I could not undertand why this area of Africa is so arid, but now I have an explanation. Keep up the great work :-)
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  35. Quite intriguing. I enjoy the unique climate series very much, good work!
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  36. Good information. Using average temperature to predict the range of a Burmese Python is one of the most ridiculous conclusions I can think of. Duh-- average temp is an average and does not represent the coldest tolerable temps of the year. Thanks for the videos
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  37. Great video, Quality already surpasses some major geography channels!
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  38. I'm from Guatemala, and I wanted to thank you so much for including so much footage from my country! Your videos are incredible!!
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  39. thank you from turkey, it was interesting
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  40. Wow--I've lived in San Francisco for 47 years and gripe about it every July. April & October are heaven, so I should be grateful. Great to have a thorough explanation, finally. Any hot chocolate come with this video?
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  41. A miniature version of this phenomena occurs around the Great Lakes. Especially the "big three": Lake Michigan, Huron and Superior. Lower Michigan is generally warmer than Wisconsin in Winter (albeit at the price of being much cloudier and snowier than Wisconsin).
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  42. I just got back from field work studying summer permafrost changes, this video is very relatable to what I saw and had thoughts about while in the plane. You answered my questions! Well done!
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  43. FINALLY, an insiteful comment/explanation as to why and how Hudson Bay acts as a giant refrigerater in the middle of Canada, keeping the summers in far northern Quebec etc unusually cool. Probably 20 degrees F cooler on the land mass surrounding Hudson Bay then say places West along the same latitude, and that is huge. That is reflected in the tree line, no real trees that far south, 56 degrees or so. I have never hear the Bay effect really discussed or even mentioned so again congrads. Just stumbled upon you first time tonite, intelligent commentary reflected in your viewers too. I will be watching. keep up the good work.
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  44. Fantastic video - I never comment on Youtube, but I'm doing so now to help with the algorithm- you deserve to get big
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  45. Thank you on behalf of all wasps
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  46. This was great! Very well edited and a relaxing voiceover
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  47. super interesting as usual !
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  48. Wonderful video and well-done narration. Very much enjoyed. 🌍
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  49. i live on aruba for over 50 years. this answered a lot of questions i had about my island....thank you
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  50. What would you say about the yellow pines in the southeastern US that still seem to dominate in certain groves despite it bring warm and humid? Also even in the lower coves of the southern Appalachians you still have plenty of white pine mixed with eastern hemlock. What makes them so persistent amongst the forests of deciduous trees?
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  51. @Casual Earth - Superb job. This is a very interesting topic. I like the way your voice sounds and how the information is presented. I grew up just north of the 41st line of latitude not too far from the Atlantic Ocean. I also lived in Argentina and always wondered why Patagonia did not receive its own version of our winter Nor’easters. Question answered!
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  52. Great video. From Kenya and always wondered why 2/3 of the country to the east and north east are arid and semi arid. Finally got a comprehensive explanation. Thanks.
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  53. My mind instantly went to the mistletoe cactus, the only native old world cactus. Though we're not sure if humans or birds brought them across the Atlantic, it was certiantly birds who spread them across Africa and to Sri Lanka.
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  54. I've been travelling on the road from Mittersill to Lienz with my friend a month ago and despite it being 25C in Kirshdorf, when we were driving down the road to Lienz the temperature dropped to 5C! I knew it had something to do with the mountains, but had no idea what. This really helped clear out that mystery and now that I think about it - it makes perfect sense.
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  55. I lived for a year in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia near the chaco savanna and man do the winters hit hard, even with 15c it felt like the freezing winters im used to in belgium
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  56. Beautiful highlands of central Mexico. I tell to people of the midwest US that in summer, it is quite cool in the Mexican highlands.
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  57. Great video very interesting
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  58. Great video. I learned a lot, and all within 8 minutes. Concise and precise.
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  59. Very good video. I have spent many days in one island off the Venezuelan coast (morning to night only, because you can't sleep overnight in it). I always enjoyed to see how the clouds gathered on the mountains on the continent. Mostly these mountains fall almost directly on the see, and rise quickly up to more than 1000 mts. Every afternoon it rains on those mountains, but almost never on the islands. I have been in the middle of one of those rains and they can be torrential!
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  60. Yup. According to Tracy Barker 90% die off each year. They aren’t ever getting out of Florida.
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  61. Anguilla has iguanas because of a rafting event in 1995
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  62. This channel has some really good videos! And I actually lived in North Carolina for a few years so that’s cool to see that you’re from there
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  63. I am 59 and finally have my question answered from childhood. I always wondered why driving from La Guaira to Caracas, on one side you see red soil with Cactus and on the other a Tropical Rainforrest!!
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  64. ​@casualearth9076 In the coast of Dhofar in Oman, the coldest water temperatures occur in August, not January because of the strong upwelling. In Salalah, August is the 3rd coolest month of the year.
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  65. This is easily the best video I have ever seen on this subject!
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  66. I used to go to Paraguana as a kid, my family liked to travel there. I could never understand why the water was soooooo cold when the climate was hot and dry. HATED it , the worst being Villa Marina. Nice beach but the water was very cold. On the flip side, the water is at its warmest in the earliest hours of the day, still don't get it. 31 years later I understand why, lol. There's also a nice feature named Cerro Santa Ana which I believe used to be a volcano. This video brought memories of those travels, here's some folk music from the region, we used to listen to it while traveling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G5eSmp9aDA&ab_channel=Thefernannova
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  67. I live in Barranquilla, city located in Colombia's caribean region, and you are very right, it’s incredible that there is a desert in the middle of tropical climate, the wind is quite strong specially in the first months of the year, thank you for the explanation.
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  68. Thank you for this video. I’m from Venezuela and I have been in many of these locations. I never knew why it was so dry there but I always wonder. So thanks for this.
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  69. You have finally explained why Los Angeles is coldest in Dec than Jan! And the N Pacific High as it pushes the jet south into the subtropics also bring atmospheric rivers to the West Coast
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  70. This is very interested, I am from the Araya peninsula area. I always wondered why it was so different. Specially the part of the upwelling, I always wondered why the water was always so cold around the area.
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  71. I live close to Asiago Plateau, Italy Up there in the carsic basins and dolines are registered some of the all time low temperatures of the Alps range like -50°C , despite just 1600 meters highness
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  72. im from punto fijo paraguana peninsula thanks for the explination
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  73. Earth Null is the best
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  74. The Amazon rainforest, with its flying rivers, literally creates Brazil (and South America) as we know it. Too bad we are destroying it. Thank you for the video, very clearly explained.
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  75. Brilliant video
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  76. I am of Waikeri heritage!! Thanks for doing this!
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  77. Could you please explain why Mediteranean climate has dry summers?
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  78. Loving all these hemlock pics
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  79. Excelente explicación, gracias desde Colombia. 🇨🇴
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  80. North Carolina mentioned let’s goooo
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  81. Really fascinating, I noticed most deserts are near west coasts but never took note of the latitudes. I looked it up and the only actual subtropical east coast desert I could find is on the Arabian peninsula's east coast. And it's just barely outside of the actual tropics, so it only counts on a technicality.
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  82. Greetings from Isla de Margarita (: Awesome video
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  83.  @casualearth-dandavis  all good My family is one of those forced ones from your mentioned city Trabzon. Nice if you got my point . Very interesting topic congrats, I just read this year in a book that East Coast of Black Sea is one of the rain forests besides Africa and South america, now I saw this video
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  84. I love the technical content in these videos but explained clearly enough for a layperson to understand. I can feel so lonely as someone like me who is interested in weather and climate...this is exactly what I've been looking for! Subscribed!
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  85. I remember one year when San Francisco hosted the (baseball) All-Star Game at Candlestick Park, aka The Abomination By The Bay, aka The Big Chill. Most of the fans were dressed more like it was winter. Made me laugh. For reference, I'm familiar with California's coastal peculiarities. Used to spend summer weekends in Eureka to escape the Sacramento Valley blazing heat.
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  86. Very enlightening and I'm Paraguanero, born and lived almost all my life here. It's truly a desert and a struggle because we need constant A/C so this forces the frail National Electric Grid. Also right now Maduro is selling electricity to our neighbor Brasil so the shutdowns have increased. You can imagine the heat if the light goes out in the middle of the day. Truly hellish. Global warming isn't helping and I wonder many times a week what's gonna happen with the people living here in the decades to come? This enviroment creates hard people in the more rural areas, where the electric grid just barely gets there or none at all due to the political and economic debacle. The fishing has revived and thrived though, as the fishermen sell their loot for good dollar cash. By the way, we have also a native small species of deer locals call Matacan. They are close to the hills chain, mostly on the prominent Santa Ana Hill. They are endangered if I recall correctly and hard to spot. The wind, kite and surfing culture has endured and tourism and even athletes comes to the east coast to have fun and train, mainly in Adicora. I hope in the future we collectively recognize the importance of tourism, which was carried historically by marabinos and caraqueĂąos from affluent backgrounds and the former middle class which is now in shambles. It was funny you mentioned the cool water surrounding our shores which is the truth. It's very curious jumping on the water here and feel the shock of cold water when the weather is so hot and arid. Although theres a mix if you move a few feets and then you feel a warm stream. In the east coast you can find some beaches with warm crystaline water like Subure. Finally let me add that not many people know that we have sand dunes in Paraguana, in the northernmost part of the region. They are almost identical to the MĂŠdanos de Coro which are localized in the isthmus but for some (but on character with the stupidity of the people here) not many people know of their existence, and theres no will to make a road and maps so the tourist going to Cabo San Roman can take a little detour to visit those unvisited basically forgotten dunes. The neglected twin of the Falconian dunes. Great video, you gained a new subscriber!
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  87. In a much larger scale in siberia, the town of Oymiakon and surroundings have the characteristic to be the coldest places in the northern hemisphere. Record low of -71,2°C and reaching lower temperatures than -60 is common in these valleys in siberia, completely enclosed by mountain ranges.
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  88. I'm from Caracas, but my family is from the Paraguana Peninsula, every year when I go visit my grandparents I always stop at the dunes of Coro. My little Saharan paradise in the caribbean <3
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  89. It’s refreshing to see my dear Venezuela mentioned. Greetings from Isla de Margarita
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  90. Interesting, why does the floor of Death Valley not behave the same way?
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  91. Shoutout to the ABC islands - some of the best diving anywhere! All 3 islands are unique and worth a visit.
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  92. Came by this by happenstance, and I'm glad I did. Fascinating video.
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  93. Interesting video, i am from the Paraguana Peninsula. Being from there i did always thought it was really weird being basically in the caribbean but still live in a really arid climate.
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  94. This was very informative.
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  95. I'm from Venezuela myself. Thanks for all this info!!! Love the video!
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