The New Year should debut sunny and warm in South Florida, teasing the possibility of a late week cold front and with promises of a cosmic lightshow if inky skies are clear.
An official forecast from the National Weather Service in Miami says drier air will be ushered through the state Monday, Dec. 30, by a lackluster front that will push out weekend clouds but leave temperatures on the warm side.
Tuesday and Wednesday daytime highs should be near 80 degrees, which is about 5 degrees higher than normal for this time of year. Overnight temperatures will hover near 60.
More: Get your groove on this New Year’s Eve at these Palm Beach County restaurants
Palm Beach County weather for New Year’s Eve
Ana Torres-Vazquez, an NWS meteorologist in Miami, said there’s less than a 10% chance rain for Palm Beach County through mid-week, but she cautions that a minor menace may be lurking for revelers leaving New Year’s parties early Wednesday.
Light winds could cause fireworks smoke to linger in the atmosphere and combine with potential fog, making it harder to see. Fireworks are permitted in Florida on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.
“It’s not particularly a concern along the beach areas, but farther inland, there could be more stagnant conditions,” Torres-Vazquez said. “People heading home at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. should know if this ends up panning out there could lower visibility.”
More: Before New Year’s Eve, let’s make sure: Are fireworks legal in Florida?
Preliminary forecasts for later in the week show a more robust cool front pushing through Florida, which could drop temperatures to below normal for the first weekend of 2025. The long-range forecast for West Palm Beach shows high temperatures on Thursday near 73 degrees.
Forecasts for the Treasure Coast are similar to South Florida with mostly sunny skies Tuesday and Wednesday. High temperatures will reach the upper 70s with overnight lows near 60. Thursday’s high temperature in Stuart is forecast to be close to 70 degrees.
Quadrantid meteor shower will peak later in the week of New Year’s
After the manmade fireworks clear, the Quadrantid meteor shower will peak Thursday through Saturday, according to the American Meteor Society. It’s the last robust meteor shower until April’s Lyrids.
A super moon lights up the night sky over the Boynton Beach Inlet in Boynton Beach, Florida on September 8, 2014.
NASA calls the Quadrantids one of the best annual meteor showers with between 60 and 200 meteors flying each hour under perfect conditions. While the shower is known for bright fireballs, the viewing window is limited by Earth’s perpendicular pass through the thin stream of debris that creates the shower.
The best time to look for Quadrantids is late night Friday into the pre-dawn hours on Saturday, according to NASA. But the timing may be variable. EarthSky.org recommends looking in the pre-dawn hours of Friday.
The shower is named after an obsolete constellation “Quadrans Muralis.”
Quadrantids are believed to originate from asteroid 2003 EH1, which is unusual because most meteor showers come from comets. Asteroids are made of metals and rocky material that don’t shed as much as comets, which consist of ice, dust, rock and organic compounds, according to the website Universe Today.
When comets near the sun, some of the ice melts and they lose bits and pieces of themselves.
Asteroids typically remain solid when near the sun.
NASA’s website says 2003 EH1, which measures just 2 miles across, could be a dead comet or “a new kind of object being discussed by astronomers called a ‘rock comet.'”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New Years Eve, Day 2025 weather forecast includes cold front, sunny