The deep freeze hitting Denver and the state will continue today and more snow is on the way.
Denver’s high temperature today should be near 18 degrees, but wind-chill values could keep temperatures below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
Wind-chill readings in Denver today could be as low as minus 32, the weather service said.
Record low temperatures in Denver were set yesterday and early this morning.
The low temperature Sunday at Denver International Airport dropped to minus 18 at 6:35 p.m., setting a record low for Dec. 14. At 2:31 a.m. today, the temperature at DIA was minus 19, a new low mark for Dec. 15, the weather service reports.
School buses throughout the area balked at starting in this morning’s cold, and some children waited in frigid temperatures to be picked up.
School districts in Denver, Cherry Creek, Jefferson County and elsewhere experienced delays as portions of their bus fleets refused to start.
“Up to 24 buses out of the northeast terminal wouldn’t start this morning, and eight schools were delayed up to an hour for bus pickup,” said Denver School District spokesman Alex Sanchez.
About 100 of Cherry Creek’s 298 busses wouldn’t start when batteries failed, said district spokeswoman Tustin Amole.
“We had to replace batteries in almost all the buses that were affected,” Amole said.
The delayed buses came from a temporary facility where there aren’t enough electrical hook ups to keep the batteries from going flat, she said.
Pickups were delayed for an hour, and perhaps longer, in some cases, Amole said. On average, children were forced to wait an average of 40 minutes for a bus.
Buses usually pick up Cherry Creek high school students starting at 7 a.m., and middle and elementary students are on later bus schedules.
So buses that were scheduled to pick up the middle and elementary school children picked up high-school students who were still waiting along with their regular passengers, Amole said.
Homeless shelters last night overflowed with folks trying to stay warm.
At the Salvation Army’s Crossroads shelter, 321 men spent the night, and Denver Rescue Mission’s Lawrence Street Shelter housed 330. Both shelters normally house no more than 300.
But not everyone came in from the cold. A Salvation Army crew that patrols areas frequented by the homeless and offers to transport them to shelter distributed care kits containing blankets, gloves, socks and other cold-weather essentials to eight people who refused to abandon the street, said Salvation Army spokeswoman Stephanie Gustafson.
“It is hard to get these guys that have been out on the street for 25 years to come in if they don’t want to be transported. Maybe they took shelter somewhere else,” she said.
The crew transported four people to the shelter, she added.
“When the weather stays like this, we are able to keep people alive by keeping them inside,” said Denver Rescue Mission spokeswoman Greta Walker.
Many of the people staying at the shelter have jobs where they spend the day or go to day-labor centers hoping to get work, Walker said.
Others spend cold days at St. Francis Center, a shelter open through the day. The Lawrence Street shelter opens for lunch, then closes until the late afternoon when those needing a bed for the night return.
Clouds will increase in Denver today, and snow is likely tonight in the city after 11 p.m., the weather service reports. Tonight’s low temperature in Denver should be about 9 degrees and 1 inch of new snow is forecast overnight.
The weather service has posted a winter storm watch for the north central mountains tonight and Tuesday.
Snow should begin to fall in the mountains late this afternoon and could become heavy tonight with accumulations of up to 8 inches in some areas, the weather service said.
Snow should spread to the Eastern Plains overnight, but accumulations on the plains and in the metro area should be light.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
