Today’s cold will fade into milder weekend; Patriots game to feature gusty wind

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Today’s cold will give way to a mild weekend, but the chill will return to the region Monday, the National Weather Service said.

Today will see a “brief shot of Arctic air” behind a departing low pressure system that brought 4 inches of snow to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard overnight, said weather service meteorologist Bill Simpson.

Highs today will reach 26 in Fitchburg and 27 in Taunton and Boston, though 25 mile-per-hour wind gusts this morning will make the highs feel like single digits. Winds will quiet overnight as lows drop into the teens in Eastern Massachusetts.

The wind will continue through a brief warmup this weekend. Temperatures in Boston are expected to top 45 degrees Saturday.

On Sunday, when the New England Patriots host the championship game in Foxborough, daytime temperatures should peak at 46, the weather service said. But by the kickoff time of around 6:30 p.m., temperatures will drop to the lower 30s, Simpson said.

The wind could be a factor in Sunday’s game, with 15-mile-per-hour southwest winds gusting to 30 miles per hour at times, Simpson said. Temperatures “should stay pretty reasonable,” with temperatures dropping from the high 40s to mid-30s by the end of the game “unless there’s three overtimes,’’ he said.

The next blast of Arctic air will enter the region Sunday night, dropping Boston’s overnight low to 18 degrees.

Monday’s high will reach 31 degrees, and by overnight Tuesday, the state will be in the throes of its next Arctic blast, with lows in the single digits and daytime highs in the low 20s east of Interstate 495. There’s also a slight chance of snow Tuesday on the Cape and South Shore.