The end of the year and the beginning of 2026 will be marked by intense cold. The last 36 hours of 2025 will be marked by a sharp drop in temperatures, with values up to 7-8 degrees below the seasonal average.
This is what emerges from meteorologists' forecasts, which announce the arrival of an irruption of Arctic air from Russia headed towards southeastern Europe.
The frigid air mass will affect the Balkans, the Carpathian-Danubian region, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea basin. Italy will be only marginally affected by the Arctic front, but the effects on temperatures will still be marked: after an anomalous phase with temperatures up to 6-7 degrees above average, there will be a sudden reversal, with an overall drop of up to 13-15 degrees, especially in mountainous areas and along the Central Adriatic.
The transition from the end of 2025 to the beginning of the new year will therefore mark a chilly period. From the afternoon of January 1st, and more noticeably from the 2nd, the shift in winds from the south will bring milder and more humid air, accompanied by a general worsening of the weather with widespread rain.
Specifically, on Tuesday, December 30th, arctic air will move east of the Italian peninsula, bringing snowfall from the afternoon and evening to the hills of the lower Marche, Abruzzo, and Molise regions. Local showers are expected in the south, while in the north, the weather will remain stable and sunny, with possible fog in the eastern Po Valley.
New Year's Eve will be dry and mostly clear, but decidedly cold: as it hasn't struck midnight in years, almost all of Italy will toast temperatures near freezing or slightly below. Temperatures below freezing are expected between Florence and Perugia, while in Rome and Naples, temperatures will also drop to 0 degrees, with the feeling of cold accentuated by the wind.
According to experts, the anomaly of the 2026 Brindisi holiday will be represented by unusually low temperatures even in the South, with the exception of Sicily, where scattered clouds and some showers are expected. A similar situation is expected in Sardinia, with greater cloud cover, milder weather, and isolated showers.
The weather will change rapidly in the first few days of the new year: the shifting winds from the south and south-west will favor a rise in temperatures and the arrival of rain, initially on the Tyrrhenian coast and subsequently also in the north.
In detail
Tuesday 30: The north will have scattered clouds and fog in the morning; the center will have showers over the Adriatic and light snow on the Apennines at hilly altitudes; the south will be unstable over Puglia and the lower Tyrrhenian Sea.
Wednesday 31: Sunny north with morning fog; mostly clear central; windy south with scattered showers in Sicily, eastern Sardinia, and the Reggio Calabria area.
Thursday 1: The north remains sunny but with increasing clouds; the central region is worsening in the Tyrrhenian areas; the south is experiencing showers, especially in Sicily.
Trend: Widespread worsening of the weather in central and northern Italy, with rain and a gradual rise in temperatures due to the arrival of southerly winds.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
Comments (1)
The cold and temperature forecasts are very interesting, but I wonder if there will actually be snowfall as they say. The arctic air seems to be strong, but it's never certain until the last minute.