New Year's forecast: After damaging winds Tuesday, 2025 will end with a chill

As Boston leans into the final stretch of 2025, the atmosphere isn’t exactly in a celebratory mood.

The wind on Tuesday will be no joke. In fact, if there were ever a time to double-knot scarves and charge up devices, this is it. Expect gusts in Boston and across much of Massachusetts to reach 40 to 50 mph, with isolated bursts of up to 60 mph in the Worcester Hills and on Cape Cod.

That kind of wind strength will result in pockets of outages, snapped branches and toss around the yard decorations or trash barrels. The peak gusts should last until mid afternoon Tuesday before slowly throttling back, with gusts around 40 mph in the evening and around 35 at night.

For our New England marine community, the offshore waters will churn up, with wave heights around 20 feet expected on Tuesday. Seas won’t fully settle until later in the week.

Now, let’s talk cold: This isn’t just winter-coat weather. It’s a feels-like-single-digits-in-the-middle-of-the-day type of chill. Actual air temps will hover in the upper 20s across Boston, but wind chills will be in the single digits — even below zero for parts of northern Massachusetts.

There are no significant winter storms in the cards over the coming days, but an arctic cold front will arrive in Massachusetts just in time for New Year’s Eve.

While the front itself may only bring a few passing snow showers or isolated squalls on Wednesday afternoon evening, these events can lower visibility, slick up roads and drop a quick coating to an inch.

For those headed into Boston for First Night, the city is expected to be in the mid-20s at midnight, with wind chills in the teens. Not the coldest New Year’s Eve Boston has ever seen, but certainly cold enough to need several layers.

Looking ahead to the start of 2026, the cold is sticking around. Highs in the 20s continue for New Year's Day and Friday.

For snow lovers and winter sports fans, this weather is great news. Upslope snow showers will continue to deliver 3 to 6 (or more) inches of fresh snow in the mountains. And with the cold pattern locked in, the snow guns will be blasting!

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