The forecast calls for the coldest temperatures this week tonight with the upper teens along the Tennessee Valley. Communities from Decatur to Mobile are opening warming stations to help those without heat. That includes the Jimmie Hale Mission in Birmingham. Its Shepura Men’s Center is working with city leaders to help up to one hundred people tonight when temperature drops. Center Director James Poe says donations of food are welcome, but donors have to be careful what they send…
“Breakfast bars, if you're not careful, they're full of nuts and that kind of thing. And unfortunately, so many of our guests that come to us don't have really good dental hygiene, and that kind of thing may not even have teeth. So the softer, the better,” Poe said.
The first significant winter storm of the year blasted a huge swath of the country with ice, snow and wind. The immense storm system brought disruption even to areas of the country that usually escape winter's wrath, downing trees in some Southern states and threatening a freeze in Florida. The National Weather Service said wind chill temperatures this week could dip into the teens to low 20s from Texas across the Gulf Coast. James Poe is director of the Shepura Men’s Center at Jimmie Hale. He says the number of people asking for help on cold nights often depends on the time of the month…
“You know, even our homeless community, a lot of those people get checks, and so at the first of the month, we usually won't see quite as many as we will, you know, going on toward the the latter days of the month, but it stays pretty consistent most of the time,” he said.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Studies show that a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its grip.
