Powerful winds swept New England on Saturday, snapping trees and knocking out power for thousands, as an unusual storm churned off the coast and brought with it unseasonably low temperatures.
As of 2 p.m. on Saturday, more than 35,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were without power, according to the site Poweroutage.us. That figure was down from about 50,000 customers earlier in the day.
The storm moved into the region late Friday, bringing scattered rain overnight and snow to the mountaintops.
It pulled in a cold mass of air. The temperatures on Saturday across New England were expected to be about 15 to 20 degrees below normal with afternoon highs generally in the 50s in most locations.
The storm was expected to exit the region by late Saturday.
Calmer weather and a return to normal temperatures were expected on Sunday, with afternoon highs in the 60s to 70s, from Connecticut and Rhode Island to Maine.
Winds howled in Boston on Saturday
Early on Saturday, Boston residents woke to the sound of winds rattling windows, tossing trash cans and whipping trees.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said that some trains in the city were temporarily disrupted because of a fallen tree on the tracks and branches on an overhead line.
Winds at Boston Logan International Airport reached over 50 miles per hour. The greater Boston area was under a wind advisory through 8 p.m.
Temperatures dropped into the 40s late Saturday morning in Boston as the cold air flooded the region.
The city was expected to reach a high of 54 degrees on Saturday, lower than the 71 degrees that is normal for this time of year.
“This is an unusual air mass,” said Candice Hrencecin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office covering the Boston area. “It’s unusually cold.”
By noon, a quarter of an inch of rain had fallen. This amount of rain is low compared with the totals recorded in winter. But the rain felt tiresome to residents who were preparing for the start of summer.
“It seems like it has been raining almost every weekend,” Ms. Hrencecin said.
Alex Salazar, the manager of Ristorante Lucia in the city’s North End neighborhood, said the dreary weather had affected business. On Saturday, he said he would not open the outdoor patio.
“This weekend we should be starting to move into our summer business, but today looks like a really slow day because of the rain,” Mr. Salazar said.
At the coast, Nantucket and Cape Cod were under high wind warnings, with gusts up to 65 m.p.h. expected.
To the northwest in New Hampshire, a total of 5.9 inches of snow had fallen on Mount Washington as of Saturday afternoon.
Snow fell at elevations as low as 3,000 feet and was observed at lower elevations, but it did not stick to the ground, said Chris Legro, a meteorologist with the Weather Service.
Mount Washington can receive snow at any month in the year, but Mr. Legro said the amount that fell with this storm was notable for May.
Back at the coast in Portland, Maine, the weather was chilly, wet and windy.
“When the rain was coming down, the temperatures were around 39 degrees,” Mr. Legro said. “Overnight, it’s typical to get those temperatures. But at noon when we’re almost in June, temperatures should be in at least the 60s on a normal day.”
Amy Graff is a Times reporter covering weather, wildfires and earthquakes.
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