It was a bitter cold that snapped the record books.

The city was in Mother Nature’s icy grip Friday as record-shattering temperatures sent a chill up the winter-weary East Coast.

In Central Park, it was 2 degrees at 7:01 a.m., making it the coldest Feb. 20 on record, the National Weather Service said. The previous record for the date was 7 degrees, set in 1950.

With the wind chill, the temperature at 9 a.m. Friday felt more like negative 16, AccuWeather reported.

The city’s all-time low is still 15 below, a record set on Feb. 9, 1934.

But frosty New Yorkers still had one thing to be thankful for: not living in Embarrass, Minn. That tiny town reported a temperature of 41 below zero Thursday — and that was without the wind chill.

Ann Arbor, Mich., was hardly better, with temperatures plunging to negative 30 degrees early Friday morning, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Larson.

Records were set across the country, from Florida to the Great Lakes. Even Atlanta was colder than Anchorage, Alaska.

The bright side? Things are looking up in New York City this weekend, as temperatures are expected to climb to a more manageable high of 38 degrees on Saturday.

“The extreme cold will become a thing of the past this weekend,” Larson said.

But it’s not all sunny skies ahead.

“Unfortunately, we exchange the extreme cold for snow,” he added.

A messy storm is set to roll into the city Saturday, bringing a mix of snow, sleet and rain.

Larson said he expects one to three inches of snow to accumulate by evening’s end.

Sunday will be even warmer, with temperatures climbing into the high 40s. A morning rainfall should end by midafternoon.

But another cold snap will seize the city Sunday night, sending temperatures back down into the low 20s by Monday morning.

“That means all that slushy and messy snow will continue to melt Sunday night,” Larson said.

“If you don’t get that snow off the street and pathways by early Sunday evening, it’s going to freeze solid.”

Want a respite from the cold? Head west, Larson suggests.

“It’s very warm throughout California, Nevada and Arizona,” the meteorologist said.

“Think of it like a seesaw — the eastern half of the country is cold, and the rest of the country is warm. When we warm up, it’s chilly out West.”

With Post Wire Services