This year’s April is a mixture of rain and snow, much like last year’s, which included an ice storm on the evening of 4/8/15 that coated trees, walls and cars in a layer of ice. Over that morning it began to melt and, as the ice was shaken through the trees in the breeze, it issued a loud tinkling sound like nature’s freezing wind chime.
© J.N. Urbanski 4/9/15 8.48am
© J.N. Urbanski 4/9/15 8.30am
On this day last year…
© J.N. Urbanski 4/6/15 8am
A year ago on the farm. We’re surprised to see snow this time of year, but last week’s warmer weather, which saw laundry drying quickly in the sun, was more unusual than yesterday’s snowstorm.
© J.N. Urbanski 4/4/15
© J.N. Urbanski 4/5/15
27F at noon with 6 inches of overnight snow and high winds causing snowdrifts. More afternoon snow.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1.10pm
© J.N. Urbanski 4/2/15
Today Catskills Lightbox features an unpublished photograph taken a year ago when there was still snow on the ground.
© J.N. Urbanski 4/1/15
Daily Catskills is taking a break for a month while we edit and print for the exhibition. It’s been a long, arduous project but it’s time to go back and review literally thousands and thousands of pictures taken over 18 months. We’ve slid down icy mountain passes and crashed into trees; wandered into a sudden low lightning storms; suffered hail, fog, snow and sub-zero temperatures atop mountain peaks. We’ve also got enigmatic pictures of writing desks and afternoon tea to balance it out and many, many pictures of the absolute best Catskills sandwiches. On many days, I personally took over a hundred pictures, but the editing process has been richly rewarding. Today’s lightbox pictures were taken in the Catskills on April 1st, the first day of fly fishing season.
Daily Catskills will start up again on May 1st. We still have eleven bushwhacks to go to complete our Catskills 35, which I started last August, so the photographs from the trail will still keeping coming. The Catskills 3500 Club membership requires that members have hiked all the Catskills’ 35 peaks over 3500ft. We have three regular peaks (with trails) and eleven bushwhacks to complete on our list. Plus, we will resume Catskills Conversations next week with a local artist.
Thanks for reading!
J.N. Urbanski
© J.N. Urbanski 4/1/15
© J.N. Urbanski
Upstate Dispatch’s Daily Catskills Project goes to print next week and an edited selection of photographic works by J.N. Urbanski will be shown in a spring exhibition at a location to be determined in the next few weeks. Watch this space for details.
At least 50 images picked from Urbanski’s contributions to Daily Catskills will be available for sale, framed and unframed.
It’s been a long, demanding project. With the help of contributing photographers Chase Kruppo, Erik Johanson, Fernando Delgado, Melissa Zeligman, Margaret Helthaler, Lydia Brunt, Gavin DuBois, Lori Robin, Jeff Vincent, Niva Dorell-Smith and Mountain Girl Photography & Design, Upstate Dispatch posted an image a day, shot on the day it was published, every day for 18 months. Special thanks go to Margaret Helthaler for her help over the past year.
After a short break in April, the project will resume online again. In April, we’ll begin Daily Catskills Lightbox, a selection of photographic work that did not make the cut on the day.
Stay tuned!
52F by 8.30am with a veil of hazy cloud. 63F and humid by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
41F at 8.30am with clear skies and warm in the sun. Update: 55F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
30F at 8.30am with a chilly wind and an overnight layer of crunchy snow. 40F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
45F at 11am, overcast and raining. 46F and cloudy by 1pm with intermittent rain and cloud for the rest of the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 5.30pm
36F at 8.30am, with hazy skies and mist evaporating off the mountains. 57F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
43F by 11am with clear skies and a hazy horizon, rising to 48F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
28F at 8.30am with crunchy layer of overnight snow and a mixture of enigmatic clouds. 43F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
35F at 8.30am, mostly clear, sunny with a biting breeze and a hazy horizon. A hair over 40F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
36F at noon, lightly overcast and chilly. The Spring (Vernal) Equinox is the time when the sun’s rays are perpendicular to the earth, as the earth’s northern hemisphere begins moving towards the sun, making it warmer here throughout the summer.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
30F at 8.30am, and sunny with a hazy horizon. 39F and clear skies at 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
39F at 11am and overcast with light snow. 35F at 2pm and more snow.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.50pm
43F at 8.30am with thick fog rolling off the mountains. Update: 54F by the afternoon with a mixture of cotton wool clouds of various colors. Down to 44F with icy snowy rain by 2.30pm. Back up to 53F by 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
43F at 8.30am, with hazy sunshine, rising to 61F by 3pm and bright despite light cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
43F at 8.30am, overcast with morning mist over the mountains. 55F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
42F at 8.30am and overcast, rising to 39F at 2pm with a biting wind.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
40F by 8.30am with hazy sunshine, rising to 57F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.41am
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
39F at 8.30am, with clear skies and a light breeze. 57F at 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
43F at 11am with a mix of sun and clouds, breezy and warm. 48F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
59F at 8.30am, overcast, humid and calm. Light, steady rain for the rest of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm
A hair over 70F at 8.30am and hazy with a light breeze. 74F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
50F at 8.30am, overcast and humid. 61F by 1.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
30F at 8.30am and overcast. 55F at 1pm, brighter and with less cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
27 at 8.30am with clear skies and warm in the sun, rising to 38F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
30F by 10am and overcast. Bitterly cold and dreary for the rest of the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
30F by 10am and cloudy with a slight breeze. 34F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
24F at 8.30am with a light layer of overnight snow and low cloud cover quickly clearing in the sunrise.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.50am
31F at 8.30am and lightly snowing with a mixture of sun and cotton wool clouds. Down to 25F at 1.15pm and very windy with isolated snow showers.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.40am
21F at 8.30am and mostly clear with hazy sunshine. 42F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
47F at 8.30am, overcast, raining and breezy.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.40am
57F by 2pm with hazy sunshine through wispy cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
19F at 8.30am rising to 34F by late afternoon. Clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.45pm
21F at 8.30am, lightly snowing, a fresh layer of powder and beautifully overcast with a shimmering sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
50F at 8.30am and mistily overcast with the ground squelching underfoot from last night’s heavy rain. Continual rain in the afternoon contributes to the raging tributaries.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
34F at 7.30am and wet with rain melting two inches of overnight snow into slush. Heavy afternoon rain. Update: heavy rain, thunder and lightning storms throughout the evening.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
31F by 1.30pm and overcast with light afternoon snow having laid an inch by dusk.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
32F by 8.30am and bright with clear skies and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
43F by 11am, overcast, but still bright. 45F by 2pm.
© MAU
50F by 11am, clear and sunny except for a few lonely clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
14F at 8.30am with the sun rising through a veil of cloud. 32F and overcast by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
17F by 8.15am and still, with clear skies apart from dashes of cotton wool cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
25F at 8.30am and overcast with a crunchy layer of frosted snow. Large chunks of ice flowing downstream and thick snow dumped on the mountain peaks only.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.50pm
48F by 10.30am with the extra blanket of overnight snow having been completely blown away in an overnight storm and replaced with ice. 52F, humid with torrential rain and strong winds for most of the day. A 24-hour smorgasbord of weather.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
0F at 8.30am, thickly overcast and lightly snowing, rising to 12F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
-7F at 8.30am with still air and clear skies, but nostril hair-freezing cold, rising to 2F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Still only 8F by 11am with high winds, a few more inches of overnight snow, fast-moving snow squalls and a shimmering sky. Down to 2F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
7F at 8.30am and very bright sunshine through the hazy cloud, rising to 20F by 10.30am.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
A bitter 14F and overcast at 8.30am with face-gnawing wind.
© Jeff Vincent of Catskill Mountain Wild 10am
27F at 8.30am and mostly sunny.
© Jeff Vincent of Catskill Mountain Wild 10am