After 165 days the temperature in Boston tops 70

(Essdras M Suarez/Boston Globe)

Northeastern University students Jeff Eaton and Ariana Vito climbed a tree today in Fens along Park Drive.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent

It had been 165 consecutive days since the temperature last hit 70 degrees in Boston, a stretch of more than five bleak months of dreary snow, rain, sleet, and cold. It was Oct. 27, the Red Sox were preparing to play the third game of the World Series in Colorado, and a long winter lay ahead.

That gloomy, psychological barrier was broken today at 1:31 p.m., when the dazzling warmth crested at 71 degrees at Logan International Airport. Forget flower buds, chirping birds, and March 20. The first 70-degree day signifies the true coming of spring.

Boston Common was flooded by Frisbee players and workers in business suits eating sack lunches on park benches and sitting on the grass. A busker played guitar outside near Park Street Station. Children wore shorts and T-shirts. Drivers rolled down car windows.

At the Needham Garden Center, a surge of customers came looking for fertilizer and a place to get lawnmowers tuned up.

“It’s 70 degrees,” said Garrett Graham, owner of the Garden Center. “A perfect day.”

More than 150 players rushed to the links at the Franklin Park Golf Course, an extraordinarily busy day this early in April. “People are steady coming in right now,” said Jessie Hodge, the Franklin Park golf pro.

Eager duffers are smart to take advantage of the warmth while it lasts.

“This should be pretty much it for nice weather for a while,” said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

The forecast Friday calls for rain and high temperatures in the 40s, a pattern expected to persist through the weekend. It gets worse.

“There is going to be a raw northeast wind,” Foley said, “That will make it feel colder than it is.”

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