An arctic front crossing New England brought a blast of “dangerous” cold to the region on Friday and Saturday, with below-zero temperatures and windchills that dropped as low as 30 degrees below zero in Boston and 35 below zero in some parts of New Hampshire, forecasters said.
The good news? The extreme temperatures will be short lived. The National Weather Service anticipates a 24-hour burst of brutal cold before Boston bounces back to about 40 degrees on Sunday.
These maps show what happened and what to expect across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut
Temperatures dropped to between 5 and 15 below zero overnight, forecasters said, and gusty winds resulted in a brutal windchill that ranged from minus 25 to as low as 45 below zero.
Advertisement
In Massachusetts, windchill — a measure of what it will feel like due to the combination of temperatures and wind — dipped to between minus 20 and minus 30 at 3 a.m., and it got even colder in areas of high elevation like the Worcester Hills and the Berkshires, according to the weather service.
The cold broke records on Friday in Boston, Providence and Worcester. In Boston, the previous record of 5 below zero had been set in 1881.
February 4th low temp records at all of our climate sites! This is a correction from a previous tweet that indicated a -6 min temp this morning for Hartford which occurred at site HFD versus our climate site BDL which reached a new record of -9. pic.twitter.com/83iibk4S0D
— NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) February 4, 2023
The morning low temperature in Boston on Saturday was expected to be minus 10, with milder conditions further south toward Cape Cod, with an expected low of minus 1 in Nantucket.
In cities across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, windchill was expected to reach its lowest point at midnight Saturday. By noon, conditions could feel like 11 below zero in Boston, while Worcester will have a likely windchill of minus 13. Providence warms to an apparent minimum temperature of minus 6.
New Hampshire and Maine
In New Hampshire and Maine, the windchill was expected to drop to 30 to 50 degrees below zero south of the mountains, the weather service said.
Advertisement
Such temperatures can lead to frostbite within 10 minutes of exposure, forecasters warned.
The minimum apparent temperature — or what the weather will feel like — could drop as low as 37 degrees below zero in Concord and even lower in Northern New Hampshire. It could feel as cold as 101 degrees below zero at the summit of Mount Washington, forecasters said.
Amanda Kaufman can be reached at amanda.kaufman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandakauf1.