Tag: Bethesda Fountain

The Blizzard of 2026 in NYC

Published on by juliebrannanLeave a comment

In January of 2026, New York City experienced a significant snowfall followed by weeks of temperatures much below average. You can see a few videos I made on Instagram from this snowstorm of the morning of the snow, snow removal in Central Park, a dog being carried down snow steps at the Bethesda Fountain, and of sledders in Central Park the day after the storm. Because of the frigid temps, the mountains of snow that formed where plows had pushed the snow off the roads hardened into ice. Citibikes were basically unusable for weeks, cemented into huge drifts of snow. Things had just begun to improve (although there was still snow around) in mid-February when there began to be murmurings of a possible big storm ahead. By February 20, they were predicting a blizzard (the definition of a blizzard has to do with low visibility due to high winds) with significant snowfall. The Blizzard of 2026 began on Sunday, February 22, and ended late afternoon on the 23rd, and this is what it was like in New York City – at least it’s my experience.

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It started snowing lightly Sunday morning, but was really barely sticking until late afternoon. By 7PM, however, the snow was coming down and the wind was blowing. The photos above were taken on the Upper East Side in the evening. Around 8PM the emergency alert (photo above but thankfully I am not including the siren!) for NYC went off, startling everyone. There was a travel ban starting in the city at 9PM, lasting through noon on Monday. The snow and the wind increased overnight. I tried to take photos out my windows on Monday morning, but just captured whiteness.

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Needless to say, my annual Citibike membership has been challenging to use this winter! I can always bundle up enough to ride even in the cold in the winter, but there is nothing that can be done when the bikes themselves are snowed in.

I went out Monday morning when it was still snowing – I think at this point we had 15 inches or so, and we ended up with just under 20. There were plenty of people out, and honestly, it was gorgeous (see my Instagram reel from that morning).

It was still lightly snowing when I went back mid-afternoon, but much of the accumulated snowfall had already occurred.

The Dakota looked stately as always, frosted with snow. And someone always keeps the Imagine mosaic honoring John Lennon in Strawberry Fields uncovered. The most entertaining and surprising thing I came across that Monday afternoon was winter sports at the Bethesda Fountain! Brave souls were skiing or skateboarding down the snow covered steps leading down to the fountain (see the video here).

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In the end, we barely squeaked into the top ten snowstorms (I am amazed that I have personally experienced all but two of the top ten – I was not alive for the 1947 or the 1888 ones!). The major impact of this storm was the blizzard conditions, and travel was certainly unsafe for a few days. In general, though, I found that snow removal was better than last time. With temperatures less arctic, it made snow removal easier than the storm with less accumulation the previous month. The packed down snow in Central Park that had turned to ice overnight was treacherous for walking, but great for sledding.

Three days after the snowstorm, there were still townhouses that had not cleared out their snow, and large drifts of snow remained.

Polar Bear Fest is an event that takes place on the Great Lawn in Central Park after every significant snow fall. Subtitled, “Don’t let the earth melt,” this is a creative demonstration, meant to remind us of the dangers of greenhouse gases and climate change. Just noticing that eight of the top ten snowfall amounts in New York City have occurred since 1996, in just the past 30 years, is alarming. In the midst of all the beauty that New York City has to offer when covered in white, the polar bears on the Great Lawn remind us of the fragility of our environment, hopefully rekindling our desire to help make meaningful change for the benefit of our beloved Mother Earth.

Central park : from the boat pond to Strawberry Fields

Published on by juliebrannan1 Comment

I had another blog post written for this week, complete with photos. Then, New York City decided to break into spring – finally, after a persistent and painful winter, it was suddenly warm, sunny, and bursting with new blooms. I was compelled to take a dérive in Central Park, as it beckoned a block from my office. A dérive, as described in more length in previous posts, is an unplanned walk within an urban landscape. While Central Park is undeniably beautiful and delivers a much-needed injection of nature into our lives in the concrete jungle, it is still supremely urban. One of the best aspects of Central Park is the way that massive buildings line the edges of the park, like an irregular geometric frame around a lush Impressionistic painting.

Entering the park at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, the first thing that struck me was the fields of daffodils in bloom. Something I love about NYC is the way Christmas trees are recycled each year. As depressing as it can be to see dried trees lining the streets waiting to be picked up in January, they are turned into mulch that is used in city parks to protect and fertilize the bulbs that create these oceans of yellow in April! Walking roughly south, eventually you run into the sailboat pond, full of remote-controlled small boats on clear spring and summer days. Gazing at the pond, unless completely covered in climbing children, is the famous Alice in Wonderland statue. Commissioned in 1959 by George Delacorte, whose philanthropy has enriched many areas of the park, it was designed to be interacted with by children. The statue of Alice was based on the sculptor José de Creeft’s daughter, and the face of the Mad Hatter is a sly tribute to Delacorte himself. Also looking at the pond with his back to the west side, is a statue of Hans Christian Andersen absent-mindedly feeding a duck while staring at the apartment buildings on Fifth Avenue (perhaps looking for a hawk’s nest).

Heading west, you soon come across the Loeb Boathouse, an elegant restaurant (and, with Tavern on the Green gone, the only place within the park that deserves getting dressed up for). They even have a shuttle along upper Fifth Avenue for those who are too dressed up to walk to the restaurant through the park. The Boathouse sits on the location of an old functional structure that was used to store the rowboats that have launched from this location since the late 1800’s (and you can still rent them next to the restaurant). There is even a gondola for hire!

Walking past the Boathouse, roughly west, you come across the majestic clearing surrounding the Bethesda Fountain. Unveiled in 1873, Bethesda Fountain was created to commemorate the Civil War dead, based on a passage in the New Testament about a pool that healed anyone who stepped into it. However, to me it is always the symbol of healing from Tony Kushner’s brilliant Angels in America, when Prior says about it, “This angel. She’s my favorite angel. I like them best when they’re statuary. They commemorate death but suggest a world without dying. They are made of the heaviest things on earth, stone and iron, they weigh tons but they’re winged, they are engines and instruments of flight.” (Epilogue.17)

Continuing to head west, you enter Strawberry Fields. Dedicated to the memory of John Lennon and recognized by 121 countries as a Garden of Peace, it is officially a “quiet zone,” but you are likely to come across a performer playing Beatles tunes near the famous Imagine mosaic. The mosaic was given to the city of New York as a gift by the city of Naples, and was dedicated on October 9, 1985, on what would have been John Lennon’s 45th birthday.

So much to see on even such a relatively short walk in Central Park! The Park belongs to all New Yorkers, not just those fortunate enough to look out the windows of their homes and watch the seasons play out throughout the year. If you’re not a New Yorker, you are as always welcome to explore it as our guest; perhaps someone will even offer to take your picture at the Bethesda Foundation.Image