The UK has welcomed 2025 with fireworks and celebrations in London, but many events across the country were cancelled due to bad weather.

Tens of thousands of people attended the annual event in the capital, with millions more tuning in on television.

Speaking ahead of the spectacle, the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m really excited about the London New Year’s Eve fireworks, the biggest fireworks taking place anywhere across Europe.

“Hundreds of thousands of fireworks, great light display but also a great soundtrack tonight as well.”

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The rest of the country faced issues with heavy rain and high winds throughout Tuesday evening and going into Wednesday.

The predicted weather led to the cancellation of displays heralding the arrival of 2025 in places including Blackpool, Newcastle’s quayside, the Isle of Wight, Bangor in north Wales and Ripon in North Yorkshire, joining the already cancelled Hogmanay festival in Edinburgh.

In Lowestoft, Suffolk, two firework displays scheduled for New Year’s Day were postponed until Saturday.

The biggest cancellation was Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival, an event with music, street parties and fireworks that normally attracts about 50,000 revellers. Organisers apologised to international tourists who had travelled to the city for the festivities.

Aditi Sahu, 35, and Neeraj Krishnan, 35, had travelled from London and planned their trip around the fireworks. Krishnan said: “We feel like we are stranded. We don’t really know what to do for new year.”

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

“We are very disappointed ... but we will try to have fun here in the Christmas market,” she said.

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 he was just going to “walk around”.

“We’ll see a lot of lights, a lot of stores. We’ll just walk around, take some pictures and hopefully make the best use of our time,” he said.

The Scottish culture secretary, Angus Robertson, said the decision to cancel was “undoubtedly” correct. He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The organisers believe that they took the decision quite early for the reason that they wanted to be able to communicate to people who have been travelling now.”

Almost every part of the UK was covered by at least one of multiple Met Office weather warnings between Monday and Wednesday.

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A yellow warning for snow and rain initially covered most of Scotland until midnight, which the Met Office said “may bring significant disruption in the buildup to new year”, but later changed to covering the Highlands and Moray only with the time extended to 4am.

A landslide and flooding closed roads and rail lines in the Highlands.

However, people in some parts of the UK have had a chance of seeing the northern lights on New Year’s Eve, the Met Office said.

People in the east of Scotland, north-east England and Northern Ireland could be treated to sightings of the natural phenomenon, also known as aurora borealis, as they celebrate the new year.

A spokesperson said areas of Scotland should have the “best chances” at seeing the northern lights.

Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge told the PA news agency: “Although the solar conditions are set fair to see the northern lights, unfortunately the meteorological conditions are not that helpful.

“Scotland should provide the best chances but with unsettled conditions dominating it will be hard to get a guaranteed view.

“Perhaps the best areas may be those along the eastern coast of Scotland.”

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