Warm Hearts Fight Cold

Hundreds of people on parole on scattered in shelters across town. What is DOC doing to help pick up the tab? How many people will be released down on Smith Road with no place to go today?

Denver set a record for cold temperature Sunday, and today could see another chilly milestone.

The day's record fell when the mercury at Denver International Airport reached minus 15 degrees about 6 p.m. The old record low for Dec. 14, set in 1901, was minus 14.

The coldest Dec. 15 was in 1951, when the temperature reached 6 below zero, according to the National Weather Service. This morning's low could sink to 20 below zero at DIA, said 9News meteorologist Marty Coniglio.

Though a mostly sunny day is on tap today, with a 10 percent chance of snow, the high is expected to reach only 9 degrees, according to 9News.

The Front Range has a 60 percent chance of more snow tonight, with accumulations of 1 to 3 inches, according

to the National Weather Service in Boulder.

Snow and single-digit lows are in the forecast through Sunday.

As temperatures plummeted Sunday night, shelters, police and welfare organizations worked to get homeless people off the streets.

Aurora Warms the Night, a collaborative effort among several nonprofit groups, offered vouchers for 49 motel rooms — the busiest day in the organization's history.

The Denver Rescue Mission's Lawrence Street shelter and the Salvation Army Crossroads Shelter were full over the weekend.

"Crossroads houses about 300, but obviously the fire department will look the other way when it is this cold," said Salvation Army spokeswoman Stephanie Gustafson.

The Lawrence Street shelter put 100 extra cots in its chapel to handle the overflow.

At Crossroads, which normally opens at 4:30 p.m., a line had formed inside the "tunnel," a long heated hallway, by 2 p.m.

"I been hanging around here since it opened up to stay warm," said Milo Ortiz, 59. "It's better than being outside."

The Denver Post