The blast of arctic air that engulfed portions of the East Coast broke more cold temperature records in several cities — although a warm-up is coming Monday.
The National Weather Service said the temperature in Worcester, Massachusetts, fell to minus 9 on Sunday, breaking a record of minus 5 set in 1942. In Providence, Rhode Island, temperatures fell to minus 3, breaking a record low of minus 1 set in 1912.
And in Hartford, Connecticut, the temperature dropped to minus 9, smashing the previous record of 1, also set in 1912.
Boston tied a low-temperature record set more than a century ago in 1896 of minus 2.
The good news is the bone-numbing air is set to push out of the region.
By Monday, Boston temperatures should return to a more seasonable low 30s. The mercury will continue to rise and Boston could see temperatures in the mid-40s by Thursday and as high as the low-50s on Friday.
Patrick Burke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said the wind won’t be as punishing on Sunday as it was on Friday and Saturday.
“With the wind dying down it will probably feel significantly better although many of these areas will still be below freezing,” Burke said.
Sunday afternoon’s high temperatures should range from the low- to mid-20s in areas from Philadelphia to Boston. They are expected to reach the 30s and 40s on Monday and Tuesday.
Many Northeast residents endured jaw-clenching temperatures and brutal wind chills on Saturday as cleanup continued from the storm that dropped as much as 18 inches (46 centimeters) of snow in some places on Thursday.
As aviation crews at South Carolina’s busiest airport, Charleston International Airport, struggled to clear runways of snow and ice so they could be reopened, in New England water main breaks, frozen hydrants and burst pipes created new problems for officials.
Hartford, Connecticut, registered 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus 20 while Burlington, Vermont, was minus 1 degree and had a wind chill of minus 30.
The temperature registered minus 37 Saturday at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, one of the coldest places on the planet. The wind chill was minus 93. It tied for second place with Armstrong, Ontario, as the coldest spot in the world.
Meteorologist Mike Carmon said people at the observatory were “layering up as a much as we can.”
