Here’s where the weather could disrupt New Year’s Eve celebrations
By Mary Gilbert and Monica Garrett, CNN Meteorologists
(CNN) — It’s no surprise that a year filled with extreme weather won’t be going out quietly with stormy conditions on the way for parts of the United States on New Year’s Eve, including some of the most populated areas of the Northeast.
A quick-moving storm will race into the East on Tuesday and deliver potentially drenching rain anywhere from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast as the final hours of 2024 tick away.
It’ll be quite wet for New York City’s iconic New Year’s Eve celebrations. Rain will move into the city early Tuesday evening and could be heavy at times, especially from 8 p.m. to midnight when an estimated 1 million people pack into Times Square.
City officials advised visitors to prepare for rain and noted that large umbrellas are not allowed in Times Square viewing areas.
The final day of 2024 will feel more like mid-November in the city with a high temperature in the low 50s Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures will remain steady throughout the evening and will be around 50 degrees leading up to midnight.
A few thunderstorms are possible anywhere from North Carolina to southern New England within the larger area of rain, including in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Most storms won’t be severe but a few could produce gusty winds and small hail, especially along the Interstate 95 corridor from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia. Any lightning strikes could be dangerous for people celebrating the turn to 2025 outdoors.
While the East mainly encounters rain in the last hours of 2024, parts of the Midwest are in for a sloppy New Year’s Eve as some snow mixes with rain at times.
Chicago will start the day with rain but snowflakes will start to mix in later in the afternoon and this wintry mix will continue until around midnight. Similar conditions will unfold in Detroit.
Most of the Plains and West will end up dry on Tuesday, but parts of California will contend with a new batch of Santa Ana winds.
Any celebratory fireworks or other sparks in Southern California on Tuesday or Wednesday could easily set off new blazes that potentially exhibit “extreme fire behavior” in very dry and breezy areas, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned.
This Santa Ana wind event will peak in strength late Tuesday into early Wednesday and deliver widespread wind gusts of 30 to 45 mph, with isolated gusts to 55 mph in parts of Southern California.
These winds – along with plenty of dry air – mean level 1 of 3 fire weather conditions are in place Tuesday from Santa Barbara to parts of the Los Angeles basin, including the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Fernando Valley and portions of the San Gabriel Mountains, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Santa Ana winds drove the explosive Franklin Fire that forced more than 20,000 people from their homes in the Malibu area earlier this month.
CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
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