While arctic air covered the region Tuesday with temperatures not seen for four years, no weather records were broken in central Maine.

And while the frigid conditions are expected to ease on Wednesday and Thursday, colder weather is expected to return for the weekend, advancing the formation of ice on lakes and rivers throughout the region.

With a daytime high of 7 degrees in Augusta on Tuesday, the record lowest maximum of 1 degree set in 1995 remains, according to Greg Cornwell, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray.

Tuesday’s overnight low was expected to be minus 5 degrees, a few degrees cooler than Monday’s overnight low, but less wind was expected.

“I think it’ll warm up more quickly in the morning,” Cornwell said.

While Wednesday’s temperatures are expected to reach the 20s and Thursday’s temperatures are expected to be around freezing, Cornwell said colder conditions will return for the weekend. “The low Saturday night into Sunday is expected to be in the negative single digits,” Cornwell said, with temperatures reaching only into the teens on Sunday.

Even before this cold snap, ice conditions across the region were better than they were a year ago, and that’s good news for ice fishermen, whose season starts as soon as ice forms.

Mark Latti, director of communications for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, said lakes and ponds that had treacherous ice on Jan. 1 last year are frozen over this year.

“This will certainly help with some of the bigger lakes in the state,” Latti said. “Moosehead Lake is now frozen over, whereas last year at this time, it wasn’t.”

Latti said people are still advised to check the ice before they head out for recreation, but the chilly weather conditions will make conditions safer.

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