Cold forecast for Yuba-Sutter through the week

Morning low temperatures are expected to stay below freezing all week in Yuba-Sutter and throughout the Sacramento Valley.

Highs will reach the mid-50s by the end of the week, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Karl Swanberg in Sacramento.

Swanberg called this an "every two-or-three-year cold snap."

The worst of it, he said, was in the early Sunday morning hours when the mercury dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yuba-Sutter's large homeless population will be most affected, said Jim Leonard, who operates several programs that help feed outdoor residents.

"It's a grave concern," he said of the dangers posed by exposure to the cold, and by measures taken to fight it.

Fire and other accidents are especially common in the river bottoms when the temperature drops, Leonard said.

"Some of the equipment these folks are using to keep warm are unsafe," he said.

Families and single women can seek refuge through the Regional Emergency Shelter Team, a program that uses local churches to shelter and feed guests on a rotating basis.

The program, now in its third year, in recent weeks has averaged about 20 guests per night, according to REST volunteer Dennis Green. Intake procedures for the shelter program take place at Hands of Hope on Spiva Avenue in Yuba City.

According to Leonard, residents of homeless camps displaced last year by the Willow Island park project in Yuba City are in an especially precarious situation.

"It complicated things," he said. "There's a lot of folks just wandering now because there's no set-aside place for them to go."

According to meteorologist Swanberg, each morning's low temperature this week will likely creep up slowly, a degree or so per day, and highs will likely do the same.

Lows for the weekend are expected to reach 30 degrees, and weekend highs are expected to hit 56.

"But to put that in perspective," Swanberg said, "Alturas is 21 below and Mammoth Lakes was 20 below zero this morning."

Leonard said he gets plenty of perspective right here in Yuba-Sutter.

"Those of us who live indoors are a lot more blessed than we realize," he said.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack or on Twitter at @ADnpasternack.