Party hat, check. Champagne flutes, check. Bubbly, check. Glittery outfit, check. There, all set up for tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.

However, there are just a couple of things missing: a hot toddy and a warm, thick rain jacket as 2013 promises to bid us farewell on a chilly note.

A Meteorological Office spokesman said today is expected to be “cloudy with showers, and thundering right through the night”.So don your rain hats this afternoon if you’re planning on popping round to Auberge de Castille, to exchange New Year’s greetings with the Prime Minister and his missus. Avoid flimsy umbrellas – the wind will be rather strong at force 5.

Although the temperature will be a minimum of 12˚C, with the humidity and all, the Met. Office said by night-time, it will feel pretty much like 9˚C.

If you plan to celebrate the turn of the year outdoors at one of the street parties be sure to cosy up well. Perhaps you might want to swap the bubbly with a Thermos flask to keep warm, and stop your teeth from chattering way too much to mouth Auld Lang Syne.

Fortunately, 2014 will kick off on a better note. The maximum temperature tomorrow will hit 17˚C. Yes, according to the Met. Office it will be “rather cloudy” with “isolated showers” but there should be “finer periods in the afternoon”, and the wind “will be moderate”. A spring day for the first day of 2014 certainly augurs well.