A blanket of sub-zero weather shrouded New England last night with the mercury falling into the minus column across the northern sections.

The weather Bureau at Boston said the cold blanket can be expected to remain over New England at least through Thursday.

Only a narrow belt along the seacoast of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut escaped the minus readings, but night brought temperatures of 10 degrees to that strip.

The forecast for the northern three states was for temperatures ranging down to 20 degrees below zero.

High winds intensified the cold.

Boston had a daylight low of 6 degrees at 9:30 a.m., and an afternoon high of 10 degrees at 2 p.m. Then the temperature started downward again, with 2 below forecast for Boston and 10 below for its suburbs.

The coldest spot in the northeast was on its highest peak, Mt. Washington, which rears up 6,300 feet in the Presidential Range in New Hampshire.

Mr. Washington was an island of arctic weather with a morning temperature of 83 below at 7 a.m. and a 78 m.p.h. wind--three miles more than a hurricane minimum--to make it seem even colder.

It stayed cold and windy all day on the peak.