Bone-chilling temperatures in Baltimore have joggers bundling up, hordes of homeless people seeking shelter and scores of drivers taking every precaution to travel safely.
An arctic cold front lowered temperatures in Baltimore and the surrounding counties to highs in the upper 20s this week, with lows overnight expected in the teens or below, according to the National Weather Service.
A wintry mix is forecast for today with show showers, rain and sleet with little accumulation expected. Winter weather advisories have been issued for Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Baltimore counties.
Despite the frigid weather, several people still ventured downtown Monday evening.
“It?s freezing; we?re going to have to take a cab because it?s too cold to walk,” said Monica Marroletti, a schoolteacher in Anne Arundel County, who was walking with a friend in search of a warm place for dinner.
Baltimore City is using a single site as a cold-weather shelter for the homeless.
The old school in the 1600 block of Guilford Avenue houses more than 300 people a night. Four other sites that had been open as shelters in previous winters have closed.
The city plans to run vans Monday night for those needing to escape one of the coldest evenings of the year. The vans will take the homeless to the shelter on Guilford.
For those driving, AAA Mid-Atlantic said it is expecting more calls to its Roadside Assistance Center.
“It is a fact of life: Extremely cold temperatures make vehicles more likely to break down if proper maintenance has not been performed,” said Ragina Averella, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
During the winter months, battery-related calls are the second-most common roadside service performed by AAA, Averella said.
By Monday afternoon, AAA Mid-Atlantic had responded to more than 5,400 calls for service ? 1,300 of them in Maryland, she said. Thirty-three percent of the calls have been battery-related, and 39 percent of the vehicles required towing.
Area homeless shelters, such as the Community Assistance Network, a private agency in Baltimore County, have seen more people seeking to escape the cold. The network operates in eight different locations by providing homeless people a hot dinner, shower and the opportunity to stay during the day.
On Monday, staff members said, homeless people have been coming in from the cold for several weeks now.
The Baltimore Station, a long-term inpatient treatment center for those who suffer from substance abuse, also remains full. The center offers comprehensive medical services to the patients, many of them homeless, said Jeremiah D?Allesandro, a program counselor.
So far, area hospitals, such as Howard County General Hospital and Franklin Square Hospital Center in Baltimore, said they have not seen any spike in emergency room visits because of the weather.
