Hang onto your hats -- and your coats, and mittens and whatever else you have to keep warm.
A day after the Baltimore area's first snowstorm of the winter, Arctic temperatures and bitter winds kept road crews scrambling and prompted extra efforts to help the homeless.
Many people stayed indoors -- a wise choice under the circumstances.
The mercury was at its highest level at 1 a.m. yesterday, at 25 degrees in Baltimore. Temperatures hovered in the low 20s until sunset, then plunged toward single digits last night. But it felt much colder, because of the wind chill.
"If you include gusts, it's minus 18," said Dewey Watson of the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.
Gusts averaged 28 mph yesterday, but gale-force blasts that reached 54 mph were reported around the area, said Jose Marrero, a meteorologist at the weather service's Baltimore-Washington International Airport office.
The chill that has gripped the area since Saturday is expected to persist until Wednesday, when temperatures are expected to "soar" into the low 30s -- and even then will be well below the normal mid-February temperatures of the 40s. There's also a chance of more snow by Friday.
In the meantime, sub-freezing temperatures and howling winds will be creating "extremely dangerous" conditions outdoors for the next few days, Mr. Marrero said.
Snow emergencies remained in effect yesterday in Carroll and Harford counties, where drifting snow caused several state highways to be closed temporarily. Drivers in Baltimore, Frederick and Howard counties also reported blizzard-like scenes in spots as wind-driven snow covered previously plowed roads.
"We've had several roads closed for a matter of minutes until we could get plows there," said Chuck Brown, a State Highway Administration spokesman. "Then the wind comes and blows snow back in the roadway."
About 280 highway workers and 230 pieces of equipment plowed state roads and treated them with a mixture of salt and calcium chloride designed for extreme cold, he said. Salt alone works down to about 17 degrees, he said.
Clearing snowdrifts from already plowed roads created problems for highway crews.
"There's no place to push additional snow," said state police Sgt. Gary Tracy at the Bel Air barracks. "They've come in with rubber-tired loaders, and they're scraping the snow up and dumping it over the existing banks. It's really whipping up here. It's all blowing around."
Mr. Brown warned commuters to beware of icy patches on roads this morning and to reduce speeds in areas of snowdrifts.
In Baltimore, all main roads were "wide open," though many side streets remain snowy, said Vanessa Pyatt, a spokeswoman for the Public Works Department. Although besieged by some 400 resident requests to clear their streets, the city has had to call off salt trucks and plows except for emergencies because of the cold, Ms. Pyatt said.
"The temperature's so low, the salt really isn't working," she said. "To plow the street, we would simply uncover another layer of ice."
Even so, city schools will open on time today, and residents can expect their regular trash pickup, officials said.
While road-salting had to be scaled back, services for Baltimore's homeless were expanded as the weather drove them into day shelters. Police reported no casualties from the cold.
Charles Harris, a program assistant at Christopher's Place, a day shelter at 709 E. Eager St., said about 250 homeless people -- about five times the usual number -- spent time there yesterday reading magazines, playing chess and drinking hot beverages.
The shelter, run by Catholic Charities, also offers a 10-cent pay telephone so that guests can find a place to stay for the night.
Joanne Selinske, director of the Mayor's Office of Homeless Services, said the city's 1,936 shelter beds, including 295 added from November through April, have been enough to satisfy demand.
Calls to the First Call for Help hot line, which refers homeless people to shelters and Mass Transit Administration bus pickup sites, were moderate yesterday.
"Often on weekends like this we see slightly less demand for service," Ms. Selinske said. "Most people who end up homeless have lived tenuously with someone else, and most people quite frankly won't throw you out when it's cold and there's 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground."
Moreover, some homeless people have just received Supplemental Security Income and other benefit checks, said one social worker, who asked not to be named.
"Cold or no cold, the call for shelter decreases when there's money," the social worker said.
David Harvey, a volunteer at Baltimore Rescue Mission, 4 N. Central Ave., said the shelter took in more than 200 men Saturday night, but was short of its 250-bed capacity.
The men usually are ushered out of the shelter after breakfast at 6:30 a.m., he said. But in yesterday's cold they were permitted to stay until 10:30 a.m.
John Craighead, a supervisor at the South Baltimore Homeless Shelter, said the 40-bed converted firehouse was full. He said the men were staying inside, watching basketball games on television.
"Who'd want to be out in this cold?" he said.
About 1,700 households in the Baltimore area were without power late last night, mostly because of wind, said Kathleen Nolan, a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. spokeswoman. The outages were mainly in Cockeysville in Baltimore County, the Chadwick area of Howard County and Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County. Crews were expected to restore power by early today, the spokeswoman said.