Thousands lost power as storm-force winds also delivered a plunge to unprecedented, near-record low temperatures over the weekend, with the deepest chill witnessed on the island in decades.

Instead of a typical winter gale, the punishing storm, likened by Bermudians to a winter hurricane, led to several flight cancellations, stopped buses Saturday night and halted the ferry service.

The Bermuda Weather Service reported that gale-force winds and 0.34 inches of precipitation, including rain and hail on Saturday. Bermuda spent the weekend under a severe weather warning, with gale-force gusts expected to linger into today.

The Causeway remained open, but the Ministry of National Security urged drivers to avoid non-essential travel.

Maximum winds of 50mph, with gusts of 64mph, were recorded at 10.34pm on Saturday and 46mph with 73mph gusts at 1.20am yesterday.

It came on the heels of another powerful gale-force system one week prior.

The BWS report stated that recent conditions, barely weaker than Category 1 hurricanes that carry winds of between 74 and 95mph, “sent temperatures plummeting to a near-record daily low of 45.1 degrees Fahrenheit, only just over half a degree shy of the all-time record low for Bermuda”.

The temperature dropped to an even cooler 44.1F at 2.30am yesterday, slightly warmer than the record 43.3 degrees recorded on February 26, 1993.

Saturday also marked the coldest February 7 on record, with the second-lowest temperature recorded at 51.3F back in 1966.

Local airline BermudAir cancelled flights to Westchester and Newark, and from Boston yesterday, as well as trips from Washington-Baltimore and Orlando airports on Saturday.

The company’s website stated the cancellations owed to “deteriorating weather conditions in Bermuda, including high winds”.

A BermudAir flight from Bermuda arrived in Toronto at 2.17pm yesterday, almost four hours later than scheduled — causing the return trip to Canada to also be delayed. A flight from Orlando scheduled for arrival at 11.30am arrived at 1.27pm.

An Air Canada flight was set to leave Bermuda at 8.20pm, 90 minutes later than scheduled, but a British Airways flight to London Heathrow was scheduled to leave Bermuda on time at 8.30pm.

Belco reported that nearly 6,650 of its customers were without power as of 6am yesterday, but this number gradually decreased to 3,500 at noon and 1,451 shortly after 5.30pm.

While there was no major damage, police reported a fallen utility pole between the Crawl Hill Esso station and Shelly Bay MarketPlace at 7.30am, less than 12 hours after a wall collapsed near Somerset Road’s junction with Lantana Road.

The Department of Marine and Ports Services said this morning that the Pink Route and Green Route ferries were operating but that the Blue Route remained under assessment.

It added that updates would be provided throughout the day.

• UPDATE: this article has been updated to add the latest information about ferry services