Record warm temperatures arrived in southern New England Thursday on a southwest wind.
Boston and Worcester hit 70 degrees about 2 p.m., with temperatures expected to climb further into the afternoon. Elsewhere in southern New England, it was 68 in Hartford and 70 in Providence, warm but not yet in record-setting territory.
“Everyone’s still wearing their masks outside and stuff, but we can at least all come together and walk and be by the water, so it’s nice,” said South Boston resident Juliana Tafuro at Castle Island, where people were even kitesurfing.
The last time Boston made it to 70 was back in November, so it has been a while since we’ve felt this warm. The previous record high for March 11 in Boston was 67, set back in 1990; Worcester’s prior high mark, 66, was set in 1977.
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Highs were in the 60s across southern New England, with a few spots into the 70s, while in the 50s to our north.
The wind will pick up in intensity ahead of a cold front that will bring a slight chance for showers Thursday night into Friday morning. Gusts of up to 50 mph are possible, with the chance for downed trees and isolated power outages.
Friday will feature clouds in the morning with emerging sun throughout the day and highs in the 40s and 50s north, 60s south. Cold air arrives Friday night with a late-season arctic front that will generate snow showers in the mountains and produce a very cold wind chill by Saturday morning.
Our weekend turns cooler with highs in the 20s and 30s north, 30s to 40s south, and a blustery wind that will force us to bundle up once again. Sunday stays chilly, with highs mostly in the 20s and 30s, but at least the wind won’t be as intense. The mountains will get fresh snow into Sunday night.
There’s a lot of uncertainty next week about rain and snow chances. Monday will be cold with highs struggling to reach the melting point under a mainly sunny sky. With cold air in place and several waves of low pressure around, the possibility for snow isn’t far off.
As of now, it appears that we turn active Tuesday through Thursday, with the possibility that some of us may have a white St. Patrick’s Day. It’s something we will have to monitor in our exclusive First Alert 10-Day forecast.
