New ice on Newfound Lake in New Hampshire near sunset on Feb. 2, 2023. Strong winds on Feb. 3 helped break up ice. Photo by Todd B. Bates/NH EnviroGuy blogger

Extreme Cold in New England Today and Saturday, Plus Safety Tips

6 min readFeb 3, 2023

A wind chill of 84 degrees below zero, with winds gusting to 110 mph.

The temperature: 30.7 degrees below zero.

That sums up the extreme cold at the summit of 6,288-foot Mount Washington in New Hampshire — shortly before noon today, according to the Mount Washington Observatory.

It will soon get and feel a lot colder. Winds could hit 140 mph there early tomorrow, with wind chills plummeting to 100 to 110 degrees below zero, according to the observatory’s higher summits forecast discussion.

“This exceptionally cold airmass will have the potential to break several minimum temperature records, including Friday’s daily record of -32F, February’s monthly record of -46F, and even the all-time record of -47F,” says the discussion by Alexis George, weather observer and meteorologist at the observatory.

The coldest temperature on record in New Hampshire is 50 below zero at Mount Washington on Jan. 22, 1885, according to the State Climate Extremes Committee in NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Fifty below is also the record in Maine and Vermont. Elsewhere in New England, the record is 35 below in Massachusetts, 32 below in Connecticut and 28 below in Rhode Island.

How Cold Can it Get in New England? Minus 50 Degrees is the Record

“A near historical cold air outbreak is moving into the region this morning,” according to a forecast discussion by the National Weather Service office that covers New Hampshire and western Maine. “While this event is forecast to be significant with respect to ambient surface temperatures, long-standing benchmarks concerning apparent temperatures (wind chills) and the air mass itself will be challenged.”

Wind chill warnings or advisories cover most of the Northeast now.

“Our wind chill forecast of -107F on the top of Mount Washington tonight is so cold, it is off our official wind chill chart! Still a threat for some areas seeing the lowest wind chill temperatures over the past 40 years tonight,” the Gray/Portland ME weather service office tweeted.

According to the office, these cold daytime high temperature records for Feb. 4 “show some potential to be broken”:

— 9 degrees in Portland, Maine (1948).
— 4 in Concord, New Hampshire (1908).
— 6 in Augusta, Maine, (1963).

Low temperatures records for Feb. 4 and 5 are “less likely to be broken.” Here are the records for Feb. 4:

— Minus 19 degrees in Portland (1971).
— Minus 24 in Concord (1898).
— Minus 14 in Augusta (1971).

Record low temperatures for Feb. 5:

— Minus 13 in Portland (1978).
— Minus 16 in Concord (1978).
— Minus 10 in Augusta (1996).

A Super Warm January 2023 in New England and the Northeast

“Wind chill values will be lowest Friday night and Saturday morning and may be the coldest or colder since a similar event in February of 2016,” the office forecast discussion says. “If wind chills fall to -40 or -50F this will be the first time in 20 or 30 years for many locations.”

The outlook is similar in other areas of Maine.

“The coldest air mass so far this winter is expected today and Saturday. Although record low temperatures do not look likely at this time due to wind, record low high temperatures are possible across the area on Saturday,” according to a forecast discussion by the weather service office in Caribou, which covers the rest of Maine.

Here are some high temperature forecasts and records for Sat. Feb. 5, as well as record low highs, according to the office.

— Caribou: minus 7 degrees. The record is minus 4 in 1963.
— Houlton: minus 4. The record is minus 2 in 1963.
— Millinocket: minus 4. The record is 0 in 1963
— Bangor: 3 degrees. The record is 4 in 1963.

Record Cold Temperatures in New England and the Northeast

Record low wind chills in these Maine locations, according to the Caribou office, are:

— Bangor: minus 56.6 degrees Fahrenheit in 1998.
— Caribou: minus 58.6 in 1951.
— Millinocket: minus 52 in 1962.
— Houlton: minus 56.8 in 1995.
— Bar Harbor: minus 46 in 1943.
— Frenchville: minus 54.3 in 2004.
— Greenville: minus 55.5 in 1981.
— Presque Isle: minus 46.7 in 1957.

“Frostbite times on exposed skin will be as little as 5 minutes during the lowest wind chills Friday night into Saturday morning and 10–15 minutes for most of the event. Always plan for a worst case scenario based on where and when you are traveling,” the Caribou office tweeted.

More images, including winter and wind chill safety tips and five of my photos at Newfound Lake in New Hampshire yesterday: