PORTLAND – 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 single digits and teens 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 has been experiencing the coldest weather of the season, with Thursday overnight lows of minus 27 in Fryeburg, minus 25 in Eustis and minus 24 in Patten. It dropped to 8 below zero in Portland and then climbed to only 6 on Friday, breaking the record for coldest high temperature for the date. The old record was 8 in 1968.

In Fryeburg on Friday, 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.