Warming Center Opens In Norcross

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA – Gwinnett County is opening a public warming center due to the extreme cold expected this week. Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church has agreed to open its doors at 4 p.m. Tuesday at 182 Hunter Street in Norcross.

Wind chills below zero degrees are expected in the metro area on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Emergency Management Director Greg Swanson said, “It’s going to be too cold for homeless people or anyone without adequate heating to be outside or in vehicles. They’ll need a place to warm up, and the kind folks at Hopewell have stepped up to assist.”

Swanson stressed that this is not a Red Cross Shelter but a temporary refuge from extreme cold for those who may need to drop in for warming. It will not provide sleeping accommodations, food, medical care or pet sheltering. Minors should be accompanied by an adult.

Hopewell has room for about 300 people in its warming center, and Gwinnett County will monitor the capacity. The Emergency Management office is coordinating the necessary supplies and volunteers.

County crews will begin pre-treating roads and parking lots at 5 p.m. Tuesday to reduce icing at critical facilities such as police precincts, fire stations, fuel sites, water facilities and the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. Next in line will be roads and bridges where icing has been a problem in the past.

Metro Atlanta was in for a crazy day of weather on Tuesday, with high temperatures expected to hit nearly 50 before the bottom drops out, bringing snow and dangerous wind chills to the area.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory starting at 5 p.m. in most of metro Atlanta and earlier in some areas further north. And, at 9 p.m., a wind chill advisory goes into effect, when the temperature could drop to 15 degrees and gusty wind could make it feel like zero.

"Light snow and very cold wind chills" are expected in much of north and central Georgia, according to the advisory. The winter weather advisory lasts until 7 a.m. Wednesday and the wind-chill advisory is in effect until 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Less than an inch of snow is expected. But the weather service warns that will be enough to limit visibility for drivers and that freezing temperatures will mean that any precipitation that ends up on roadways is likely to freeze and stick there.

Wind chills will range from 20 to zero degrees — and could get all the way down to -10 in the north Georgia mountains. Those chills could cause frostbite and hypothermia with as little as 30 minutes of exposure to skin, the weather service warned. They urged anyone going outside in the weather to wear hats and gloves.

Tuesday's forecast calls for a high of 47 degrees, with a 30 percent chance of light rain starting around 4 p.m. A chance of rain and snow is forecast before 7 p.m., with a chance of snow after that. The overall chance of precipitation in metro Atlanta is 50 percent.

Photo courtesy Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church