The bitter cold, coupled with the wind chill, was

life-threatening

in some areas.

PORTLAND (AP) – Mainers, some of whom won’t see the temperature break the zero mark until Sunday, have something to look forward next week: the possibility of even colder weather.

The big chill is expected to give way to temperatures in the teens and single digits on Sunday, but colder weather may be on tap by the middle of next week, said Tom Hawley of the National Weather Service.

Already, the state was experiencing the coldest weather of the season, with overnight lows of minus 27 in Fryeburg, minus 25 in Eustis and minus 24 in Patten. It dropped to 8 below zero in Portland.

In Portland, the temperature climbed to only 6, breaking the record for coldest high temperature for the date. The old record was 8 in 1968.

In Fryeburg, John Morris said his fingers became numb even though he was wearing gloves on a short walk to his truck.

And his dog had it even worse on a brief walk. He said the mixed-breed dog did a dance of sorts on the cold ground. “She held her right paw up for a while and looked down. Then she put it down and picked up her right paw,” he said.

The bitter cold, accompanied by a wind chill warning in parts of the state, was potentially life threatening.

Police officers were alerted to watch for people who might be caught outdoors, especially the homeless.

In Portland, more than 300 homeless sought shelter Thursday at the Preble Street Resource Center, which ran out of gloves, hats and scarves to give away, said Jon Bradley from the Oxford Street shelter.

The Northern New England office of AAA was deluged with hundreds of calls from motorists whose vehicles failed to start.

Mechanics had made more than 4,035 road service calls as of 4:30 p.m. Friday in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, spokesman Matt McKenzie said. That compared to 2,541 the day before, he said.

The bitter cold was expected to hold through the weekend, but a slight warmup was expected on Sunday followed by the possibility of some snow Monday, Hawley said from his office in Gray.

By Wednesday, another batch of cold air from Canada was expected to make a push into the state.

The core of the cold air was expected to be over the Northeast on Thursday with more bone-jarring temperatures, Hawley said. There’s the possibility that the coldest air could end up over Maine, he said.

AP-ES-01-09-04 1724EST