A cold front passage early on New Year's Eve will set the stage for a cooler start to 2025. While seasonably cool for the first week of January, there are some early signs for a big winter chill by the second week.

Tonight & New Year's Eve: A cold front will approach overnight, passing closer to sunrise. A southwest breeze ahead of the front will keep temperatures on the milder side, with readings in the 60s for much of the night, perhaps dipping into the upper-50s by daybreak. That is well above the average low of 42°. Skies will start off mostly clear during the evening, becoming partly cloudy overnight. A few patches of dense fog are not out of the question either. Visibilities should improve quickly with time during the Tuesday morning commute. Any low clouds or fog that develop will clear out from west to east as the cold front slides through early Tuesday.

The coolest air will lag behind the frontal passage. Highs will manage to hit 70° in many spots under sunny skies on New Year's Eve. But the chill arrives as we ring in the new year. Temperatures will quickly fall with mostly clear skies, into the 40s by midnight.

Up Next: It will be noticeably cooler on New Year's Day with a high in the low-60s. And for the rest of the week, highs will generally stay in the 60s with a mixture of 30s and 40s for lows. Rain chances will remain minimal, aside from the possibility of isolated showers on Thursday night. This will occur in response to a front setting up along the coast. That front will stall offshore for a few days before lifting north over the weekend. That will open the door for another round of showers and thunderstorms Sunday, into Monday. While the timing on that is iffy, rain is likely at some point during that timeframe. And behind that storm system, it gets much chillier.

There is a convincing signal for some really cold air, the coldest of the season, to push into the region by the middle of next week. The first hard freeze of the season is not out of the question. It is too early for specifics beyond that, but below-average temperatures looks to be a given for the middle of the month.

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-- Meteorologist Malcolm Byron