New Year’s Eve – live: Celebrations across world as countdown begins to London fireworks despite bad weather

It is officially 2025 in the UK.

Fireworks can be heard exploding across the country as Big Ben chimes midnight.

The new year is fast approaching, with just a couple of minutes left of 2024…

Heavy rain will lash parts of the UK to begin 2025 after New Year’s Eve celebrations across the country were cancelled.

Many faced heavy rain, strong winds and even snow in some parts, leading to widespread disruption on Tuesday.

An amber warning for heavy rain has been put in place across parts of North-West England until 9am on New Year’s Day.

The Met Office warning stretches from Settle in the Yorkshire Dales across to Preston and down to parts of the Peak District.

The warning states that heavy rain is “likely to lead to disruption including flooding in some locations” with a chance some places could see more than 10cm of rain.

Winds of up to 60mph are forecast across much of England and Wales all day on Wednesday, with gusts of 75mph likely around coastal areas and hills, according to the Met Office.

Rain turning to snow on New Year’s Day is likely to cause travel disruption, particularly on roads and railways across Grampian, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, and the Highlands & Eilean Siar, the Met Office said.

The UK faces a “year of rebuilding” while also “rediscovering the great nation that we are” in 2025, according to Sir Keir Starmer.

The Prime Minister used his first new year’s message since entering Downing Street to reflect on a “year of change” in 2024, although joked this did not extend to football as the England men’s team experienced “another agonisingly close shave” by losing to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.

He added his Labour administration has begun the “work of change” since winning the general election in July and pointed to an increase in the minimum wage, clean energy projects and NHS investment as examples.

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With hours to go before the end of 2024, tourists who travelled to Edinburgh in the hope of experiencing the Hogmanay fireworks have described having to quickly find other ways to celebrate the new year.

The street party and fireworks display over Edinburgh Castle were cancelled on Monday afternoon due to a Met Office yellow weather warning, which at the time covered most of Scotland throughout Hogmanay before the warning area was cut back to the Highlands and Moray.

Elisa Dorris, who is originally from Spain but now lives in Dublin, flew to Edinburgh with friends in order to see the fireworks.

The 23-year-old shop assistant described having to ask around for suggestions as to what she and her friends can do to celebrate the new year.

She said: “We are very disappointed … but we will try to have fun here in the Christmas market. We will try our best to have fun this night.

“So we have been asking people about what we can do, and they say that they have pubs in Victoria Street, and the people are going to go out, because it’s a lot of people in the same situation. So we think that we are going to do that, stay in the streets, in the pubs.”

David Liew, a 59-year-old lawyer from Singapore who came to Edinburgh for New Year during a three-week holiday in the UK, said: “We’ll just walk around, take some pictures and hopefully make the best use of our time.”

Mr Liew added that he could understand the decision to call off the fireworks, but said they should be put back on now that the weather had turned out better than expected.

“We are pretty disappointed. We were just informed, I think, this morning, but I think it’s due to the weather. But when I look around now, I think the weather is fine, and I think the celebrations should resume.”

An amber weather warning for heavy rain has been put in place across parts of North West England until 9am on New Year’s Day.

The Met Office alert stretches from Settle in the Yorkshire Dales across to Preston and down to parts of the Peak District.

The warning states that heavy rain is “likely to lead to disruption including flooding in some locations” with a chance some places could see more than 10cm of rain.

Fireworks have been lit in celebration for thousands of years, and this New Year’s Eve is no different.

But, while Americans and millions around the world ring in the new year with dazzling displays of multi-colored chemical reactions, they may not realize their damaging impact on their environment and ecosystems.

“Looking at the composition of these particles and which ones may be the most toxic to human health, fireworks are in the mix with particles from coal-fired power plants, which appear to be the worst,” Terry Gordon, a professor at New York University, told the publication Delaware Currents last July.

My colleague Julia Musto reports: