Northern Maine is facing two fiercely frigid days, prompting officials there to urge caution.

“Because of the cold, we advise people, if they can hunker down over the next 24 hours, they should do it,” Caribou Police Chief Michael Gahagan said Friday morning.

Temperatures fell below zero in the northernmost parts of the state Friday morning, and the mercury is expected to fall even farther in a nasty cold snap that will likely bring the entire state well into the negative numbers before ending Sunday. 

The National Weather Service has predicted that wind chills in some of Maine’s northernmost communities, such as Caribou and Fort Kent, will reach minus 65 degrees. NWS is also predicting  that blowing snow off of fields in northern Maine communities will cause blizzard and white-out conditions.

As of 12:30 p.m. Friday, Fort Kent was a frigid 16 degrees below zero with light snow, while the windchill registered 45 degrees below zero, the NWS reported, citing conditions at Northern Aroostook Regional Airport.

In Caribou, conditions were just a tad warmer at 11 degrees below zero and a windchill of 32 degrees below zero at Caribou Municipal Airport, the NWS reported.

Darren Woods, director of Aroostook County Emergency Management, said Friday morning that the roads were clear so far.

“The road conditions aren’t too bad, but there are spots that are starting to have some visibility problems,” he said.

Local officials throughout the county, Woods said, are preparing for the worst.

“A lot of the schools have closed. A lot of the businesses have closed, which is good,” he said. “It keeps people off the roads. It keeps the little ones out of frostbite danger.”

Regional School Unit 39, which serves Caribou, announced that schools would be closed on Friday. 

Maine School Administrative District 27, which serves Fort Kent, announced Friday would be a remote snow day. Gahagan said local courthouses were also closed for the day.

Warming centers are also open, but early in the day there were few takers. In Fort Kent, Jason Guerrette, director of facilities at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, said the school’s gymnasium and dining hall were open to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., as they usually are, but there hadn’t been any visitors as of 9 a.m.

“It’s still early,” he said. “The weather, it’s just started to kick up. It’s only negative 5 out.”

Gahagan said the Caribou Wellness Center will be open as a warming center, and has a capacity of about 200 people. 

Even farther south, temperatures are expected to fall well below zero by Saturday morning. Record temperatures for the same day in Portland, Bangor and Augusta, according to the National Weather Service, are in the single digits, but above zero. 

Officials in all three cities have issued advisories of warming centers being available throughout the cold snap. Officials statewide have warned Mainers to avoid being outdoors for long periods of time, keep pets inside and if they lose power, be sure to keep generators outside and away from open windows.