A wave of bone-chilling air will follow Saturday’s snowstorm, as a strong cold front pushes through the region, flipping our winds to a northwesterly flow and sending temperatures into a free-fall.
There’s a link to the polar vortex with this quick shot of Arctic air, dropping temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below average late Saturday and through much of Sunday. Surface high pressure will tug some of that unlocked polar vortex air down to the surface, plunging temperatures into the negative Saturday night with wind chills reaching the negative 10s and 20s.
Sunday temperatures will only rise to the mid-10s across Greater Boston before the Arctic air moves on. Extreme cold alerts have been issued for portions of New England, where some wind chills may reach as low as negative 30 degrees.
Cold alerts are in place for nearly all of southern New England and spilling into areas up north. Make sure you’re limiting time outdoors, cover up as much skin as possible, and remember your pets, as frostbite at these wind chill temperatures may only take 15 minutes to set in.
Looking forward, after temperatures rebound slightly next week, colder is expected later in February.
Cold snap setup — cold dome above our heads
The upper atmosphere will drop very cold air over New England this weekend.
Saturday ends frigid and windy
Sunday — bitter start with winds calming later in the day
How these wind chills compare to the record books
Before this Sunday, the lowest wind chill recorded this winter sits at minus-14 degrees for Boston. We should breeze past that mark by early Sunday morning.
The lowest recorded wind chill at Logan Airport sits at minus-41.56 degrees, set back in 1943.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.
