Rain, snow or clear skies for New Year’s Eve festivities? Here’s Boise’s weather forecast

If you’ve got plans to head to the bars on New Year’s Eve or perhaps to check out the 10th annual Potato Drop outside of the Idaho Capitol Building, you’re in luck.

There’s a more-likely-than-not chance that the skies above Boise will remain dry Sunday evening heading into Monday morning, and temperatures will even be slightly warmer than usual.

“It looks like there’s about a 30% to 40% chance of precipitation over the higher terrain,” National Weather Service meteorologist Sophia Adams told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. “And anywhere from a 10% to 20% chance of precipitation over the valleys and Boise metro area.”

Any precipitation that does fall in the higher altitudes will be snow, Adams said, with a rain-snow mix possible for areas below 5,000 feet. Additionally, any precipitation that does fall will likely be in the early hours of Monday morning.

The Weather Service forecasts cloudy skies for most of the holiday weekend, with temperatures peaking at 44 degrees on Sunday in Boise and dropping to about 29 degrees at night.

Adams said the temperature in Boise at midnight, when 2023 ticks over into 2024, should be about 30 degrees.

While those temperatures are certainly chilly, it’s still warmer than most other New Year’s celebrations. The typical high for late December and early January is 37 degrees, while the typical low is 24 degrees.

Adams said the warmer weather is due to some long-lasting high-pressure ridges that a strong El Niño has likely influenced. Air in a high-pressure system compresses and warms as it descends toward the surface.

“Those warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific region,” Adams said, “are helping develop those high-pressure systems in our region and keeping our temperatures warmer.”