The coldest weather of the season arrived across the region yesterday, filling homeless shelters and creating problems for motorists.
The shelters “were not all the way filled, but they were close,” said Ruth Walker, program director of Shelter Hotline in the District, which runs five family shelters and 23 shelters for single men and women.
The arctic blast arrived from the northwest Saturday night, dropping temperatures below the freezing mark and resulting in more than 280 calls to Shelter Hotline, said Miss Walker, who has been helping the homeless for 18 years. Vans transported to shelters about 180 people in danger of hypothermia, she said.
The shelters are open around the clock, and the homeless are provided hot drinks, food and blankets.
But sometimes these comforts are rejected.
“There are so many who won’t come off the street,” Miss Walker said. “We go looking for them.”
Montgomery, Prince George’s and Arlington counties also opened shelters.
Temperatures were expected to drop into the teens last night, but wind gusts would make the air feel chillier.
The forecast for today calls for temperatures in the low 30s with sunshine and light wind.
The record low for this time of year was minus 2 at Ronald Reagan National Airport and minus 7 at Washington Dulles International Airport in 1985, National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Winther said.
AAA Mid-Atlantic officials said frigid temperatures can impair or damage car batteries.
“At 32 degrees, your battery has 15 percent less starting power than it does at 80 degrees,” said Jeffrey Boone, known as the organization’s “car doctor.”
“At zero, it has 35 percent less power and at minus 20 degrees, it has less than half the cranking power while the engine needs 3½ times more power to start,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.