QUINCY — Children played along the shoreline at Wollaston Beach Saturday, marking the start of a sweltering — and record-breaking in some places — Memorial Day weekend as they put down beach towels, collected seashells, and waded in the water.
Two young girls focused on working to save snails.
“This one just moved!’’ squealed 6-year-old Abigail Seaman, squatting in lavender Crocs next to a small handful of tiny snails on the rocks. With the heat and low tide stranding many of the creatures on hot dry rocks, she and her 9-year-old sister, Grace, were moving them back into the water.
“New England weather is beautiful,’’ said Mei Yuen, the girls’ grandmother.
At 1:44 p.m., the temperature in Boston reached 92 degrees, tying the record high for May 28 set in 1931, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton. A sea breeze that kicked in midafternoon prevented Boston from breaking the record, said meteorologist Benjamin Sipprell.
Worcester and the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton reached 89 and 91 degrees respectively, breaking their records — the former from 1911 and 1929, the latter from 1929 — by a single degree. Fitchburg Municipal Airport recorded 97 degrees.
Meteorologists were anticipating that a cold front on Sunday will create a dramatic range of temperatures with the possibility of showers, followed by a thorough soaking for Memorial Day that includes the possibility of localized flooding, according to meteorologist Kim Buttrick with the National Weather Service in Taunton.
By late Saturday morning, most of Eastern Massachusetts already had reached the upper 80s to low 90s, while the Cape Cod region was in the low 80s, according to the National Weather Service.
Following the daytime heat, overnight lows were expected to dip into the mid-60s with possible patchy fog over the inland valley area after midnight.
A backdoor cold front — a cold front that comes from the north rather than the west, which is typical for southern New England — probably will drape across the northeastern part of the state from the North Shore, stretching through Boston and down to Cape Cod, leading to a wide disparity in temperatures, she said.
“For example, you could have the eastern tip of Cape Cod — Provincetown — with a high of 60 degrees, and yet out west in Springfield, Mass., it could be 90s,’’ Buttrick said.
A tropical depression off the coast of the Carolinas is expected to send its moisture northward, creating intense rain for the holiday that promises to put a damper on any outdoor celebrations.
Bands of heavy showers are expected to form late Sunday night and early Monday morning, though predicting the specific areas most likely to be affected is difficult, said National Weather Service meteorologist Hayden Frank in a statement.
“You could get heavy rainfall in a short amount of time,’’ Buttrick said. “That could be problematic for urban centers like Fall River, New Bedford, Peabody — cities that have drainage issues when there is a heavy rainfall.’’
A possible second band is likely to develop Monday morning and afternoon across Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, possibly lingering into Monday evening, Frank said.
Drier weather should make a return for Tuesday and Wednesday with highs in the 80s and high 70s to upper 80s, respectively, with slightly cooler temperatures for the Cape Cod region, Buttrick said.
As the temperatures reached summer-like territory, a handful of public pools and spray decks in Boston opened for the season Saturday, including Artesani, Alfond, Mission Hill, Neponset, Olsen, Moynihan, and Stony Brook, all of them unguarded, according to a schedule by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Watching their 2-year-old son play in the water at Wollaston Beach Saturday afternoon, Jamal Cofield and Lajaysha Harris opted to bask on the hot sand instead. The toddler was joined by Cofield’s 13-year-old brother and Harris’s 9-year-old brother.
“They can keep the water,’’ said Cofield. “I’m good with the air and a nice cold beer.’’
Nicole Fleming can be reached at nicole.fleming@globe.com.
