Even colder weather lurks around the corner.
By The Associated Press

The National Weather Service canceled a windchill advisory Sunday as Mainers looked forward to a warmup over the next few days. But another blast of even colder air is on tap for later this week.

The temperature dipped to 29 below in Allagash, 17 below in Livermore Falls and 7 below in Portland early Sunday before warming up with temperatures in the teens in southern Maine.

“Today, people think it feels balmy,” Susan DuPlessis, spokeswoman for the Sunday River ski resort, said Sunday. Twenty-four hours earlier, the temperature dipped to 10 below on the summit.

By Monday, the mercury was expected to inch upward into the 20s and it will approach freezing on Tuesday in southern Maine.

After that, the state will sink back into the deep freeze.

“We’re getting another shot of cold air straight out of Siberia,” said Duane Wolfe of the National Weather Service in Caribou. Most Mainers, even skiers, chose to sit out the cold weather at home or some other warm place. DuPlessis said business was down during the cold snap even though skiing conditions were the best this season. Most other ski areas reported that their numbers were down, as well.

Before the cold snap, open water could still be found around central Maine, while some of the ice that had formed was thin.

Jaime Greene, owner of The Bait Shop in Winthrop, said anglers have told her some of the more popular bodies of water for ice fishing, such as Cobbossee Lake, finally have enough ice on them to fish.

Greene said the cold weather is a mixed blessing.

“It helps with the ice,” she said, “but if it gets too cold that keeps people off the ice.”

AP-ES-01-11-04 1519EST