Wind and rain battered the Island this weekend, but rain is not expected to dampen Bermuda’s New Year’s celebrations.As of press time last night, the Bermuda Weather Service was forecasting strong winds, but no rain for this evening’s festivities.Athena Williams, of the Bermuda Weather Service, said the weekend weather was brought on by a very cold, dry continental polar air mass passing over the warm, moist air over the Gulf Stream.“When continental polar air advects over maritime tropical air the difference in the air temperature between the two air masses creates extreme instability in the atmosphere, thus producing upward vertical motion which results in rain showers and thunderstorms,” she explained. “The more unstable the air mass the more severe the thunderstorm potential.”The weather was made more severe by a high pressure system over the Southeast United States interacting with a low pressure frontal boundary.Winds yesterday morning were recorded reaching 39 knots (45mph), with gusts of 52 knots (60mph) as the frontal boundary passed to the Island’s east, but weakened later in the day. Gale and small craft warnings were issued on account of the weather.The strong winds are expected to continue this morning, but weaken further as the day progresses. While the gale warning was as of press time set to end this morning, the small craft warning was to remain in effect until tomorrow.Despite the weekend’s rainfall, it is expected that Bermuda will have a drier than average year. As of Saturday, a total of 48.31in of rain had been recorded on the Island in 2012, below the average year-to-date rainfall of 56.62in.