Above: Catskills icicles. Photo by Mark Zilberman, via the Watershed Post Flickr pool. 

Hello 2015! We're back after a holiday break, just in time for winter to really sink its teeth into the Catskills.

The National Weather Service is warning that high winds will batter Greene, Schoharie and Ulster counties throughout the day on Monday, Jan. 5, that downed power lines and outages are possible, and that "loose objects may be propelled:"

Above: Barnes Hill on a sunny fall day in 2014. Photo by Dennis Schevjda, via Flickr. 

If the national travel press has anything to do with it, the Catskills will be flooded with tourists in 2015.

Two separate publications, Fodor's and Travel + Leisure, have put the region on their lists of the best places in the world (the world!) to visit next year.

Fodor's Go List 2015 lumps "The Hudson Valley and the Catskills" together, and lists them as #2, right after "The Arctic" and before Namibia and Guatemala:

Above: The proposed route of the Constitution Pipeline in 2013. Via the Constitution Pipeline's website.  

Since Dec. 12, the Constitution Pipeline has filed formal eminent domain proceedings against 55 landowners along the pipeline’s proposed 124-mile route through Schoharie, Delaware and Chenango counties, federal court records show.

The pipeline, which received conditional approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 2, has wasted no time in using the power of eminent domain to force people to allow the 30-inch natural gas pipeline to cross their land.

On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the pipeline’s law firm sent a letter to resistant landowners offering them a chance to accept compensation in exchange for an easement on their property. The letter gave the landowners until Dec. 11 to make up their minds.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is basking in the celebratory mood of his constituents this week. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, his administration announced that New York State will ban hydraulic fracturing natural gas drilling and also gave a green light to a casino resort in the Catskills.

Cuomo has travelled the state to glad-hand with supporters of both moves. He gave a speech in Bethel on Thursday, Dec. 18 to a cheering pro-casino advocates in Sullivan County.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo attended a celebratory rally at Bethel Woods in Sullivan County on Thursday, Dec. 1 to kvell about the state Gaming Facility Location Board's decision to allow a casino to be built on the site of the former Concord Resort Hotel.

"A whole generation of people can be reintroduced to upstate New York. And they're going to come to the Catskills, and they're going to see the Catskills, and they're going to love them," he said. "This is the magnet to do it." 

The governor directed his remarks to the people of Sullivan County, who faced fierce competition from other developers in other counties.

"You came up with the best product and you deserve to win, and you made that happen," he said.

Watch the whole video of the Governor's remarks above.