BOSTON — Many woke up Saturday in Massachusetts to swirling snowflakes, a dusting on their back porches and unseasonably cold temperatures — less reminiscent of a Mother’s Day weekend and more akin to a March weekend, thanks to a polar vortex.
In Worcester, the temperature plummeted to 30 degrees, making the previous weekend’s mostly warm and sunny weather a distant memory. That low broke the previous daily low of 31 degrees set in 1934, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service also said Bay Staters can expect it to be very windy and unseasonably cold Saturday across the state, with gusts up to 45-55 mph. Wind chills will be in the 30s and down in the 20s in the higher elevations.
Watch out for power outages to go along with the wind. As of 10 a.m. several hundred people were without power across the state, the bulk of which are in Shutesbury and Franklin.
There’s a wind advisory in effect today for much of Massachusetts from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. and a freeze warning for parts of Franklin, Worcester, Hampshire, Hampden counties starts tonight around midnight until Sunday morning at 8 a.m., according to the weather service.
The unusual weather is part of a polar vortex, according to forecasters.
Forecasts predict as much as 2 inches of snow in the Berkshires; an inch for areas of central Massachusetts and rain with a few flakes in the Boston area.
The commonwealth hasn’t had measurable snow in May since 2002, when 2 to 3 inches fell in the Berkshires. There hasn’t been measurable snowfall in Boston in May since 1977, the Associated Press reported.
Christine Peterson in Barre said it all in a tweet, sharing what she saw this morning:
PEABODY MA
