(Bloomberg) -- A large stretch of the eastern US — including New York’s Times Square, the site of the famed New Year’s Eve celebration — is due for a blast of rain and gusty winds to ring in 2025.
Revelers in Manhattan could see up to three-quarters of an inch (1.9 centimeters) of rain between 8 pm local time Tuesday and the early hours of Jan. 1, as a moisture-packed low-pressure system brushes the eastern US. With temperatures from the mid-Atlantic to southern New England hovering between 40F and 50F (4C to 10C) overnight Tuesday, there’s little chance the moisture will turn from rain to snow, and there’s the chance of localized floods in some places around midnight.
In New York, “we have the potential for some isolated thunder as well, during the overnight period,” said James Tomasini, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service on Long Island. “We’ll dry out as we head into early Wednesday morning.”
That may be unwelcome news for those planning to attend the festivities in Times Square, where umbrellas are banned for the event featuring the iconic annual ball drop. But the rain will provide an extra shot of relief to New York City and much of the northeast as the region slowly emerges from drought conditions caused by a historically dry autumn that spawned unexpected brush fires.
Weather patterns have shifted over the last several weeks, bringing repeated doses of rain and snow. New York’s Central Park will likely end December “a little bit above normal” in terms of precipitation, Tomasini said, with more than 4 inches of measurable rain and snow in the park since Dec. 1.
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