Miami woke to one of its coldest New Year’s Eves in decades. Is it a record?
The last time Miami woke to a New Year’s Eve morning in the mid-40s it was 25 years ago, just a year after the collective concern that a Y2K bug would wreak havoc with global computer systems as we entered the new millennium.
That didn’t happen. But 42 degrees happened in Miami and 40 in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 31, 2000.
This year we came pretty close: As of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, the low at Miami International Airport read 47, said National Weather Service in Miami meteorologist Robert Molleda.
“It’s quite possible, if not likely, that it dropped another degree between 7 and 8,” Molleda told the Miami Herald.
Cool enough for a hardy hockey enthusiast in a red hoodie and shorts to rollerblade down Ocean Drive in South Beach Wednesday morning with a hockey stick in hand sending a neon green puck along the asphalt.
An official report is due in the afternoon from the weather service. Molleda can say lows in the mid-40s —specifically in Miami-Dade and the Miami area — happened. Western regions like Homestead, Redland, West Kendall saw temperatures into the low 40s, he said.
Miami Beach, on the coast, which tends to be a bit warmer, was likely around 47, 48, he said.
We read 45 on our watch and phone in Kendall at 7:30 a.m.
Molleda confirmed these New Year’s Eve temps were South Florida’s lowest in a quarter-century when the meter at MIA read 42.
The all-time Dec. 31 record: 34 degrees in Miami on New Year’s Eve in 1917.
Woodrow Wilson was in office as the 28th president of the United States on that day and the Miami mayor was John W. Watson Sr.
A month later, in February 1917, Miami hit its all-time low during a cold snap at 27 degrees, according to records. It didn’t snow that day. Residents would have to wait another 60 years, until Jan. 19, 1977, for the only recorded snow in Miami, a “trace” amount, according to the National Weather Service.
For the Big Orange sign’s rise at midnight in downtown Miami to herald in 2026, Molleda says the forecast calls for around 50 degrees. Areas out west could dip between 46 and 48, and good ol’ South Beach a toasty 52-53.
Patchy frost is expected after midnight into New Year’s Day at 9 a.m. over inland Broward and Miami-Dade counties mainly west of US 27 and Krome Avenue, the weather service posted in an alert.
The official advice: dress warmly.
Miami’s big chill in photos
Here’s how some folks bundled up around Miami on New Year’s Eve morning.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM.
