Really cold weather is back. It’ll be here for a while. What to know.

Puddles turned to ice and Rock Hill-area residents bundled up Tuesday morning, as temperatures fell to the lower 20s.

After more than a week of unseasonably warm weather, winter has returned, and forecasters say we’ll have a few more days before milder conditions return.

The thermometer bottomed out at 24 degrees at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Rock Hill’s airport. That was the second-coldest reading this winter, trailing only the 23-degree reading on Dec. 20.

It could be even colder Wednesday morning, say forecasters.

An arctic high pressure system is moving slowly eastward, and forecasters say the center of the system will be just north of the region Tuesday night. Lows could fall to near 20 degrees in some places across the Rock Hill area, forecasters say.

“Despite skies becoming sunny, highs will be similar to (Monday),” said National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Kimball.

Monday’s high in Rock Hill was 39 degrees — more than 10 degrees below the average high for this time of the year and the coldest high temperature since last Feb. 20.

The cold was accompanied by even frostier wind chill readings. At 7 a.m., the wind chill at Rock Hill’s airport was 15 degrees, making it an uncomfortable morning for area students heading back to classes after the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

Lows of 25 degrees were recorded at the airports in Chester and Lancaster, while Charlotte had a low of 23.

Naturally, it was even colder in the northwest mountains of North Carolina, with readings of 13 degrees in Boone and West Jefferson.

After the continued deep freeze Tuesday, some moderation is forecast for Wednesday.

Afternoon highs are expected to climb into the middle 40s, and then to near 50 degrees Thursday.

By late Thursday, forecasters say the next low pressure system will approach the Carolinas. Rain is expected much of the day Friday, followed by partial clearing Saturday and sunny skies Sunday. Meteorologists say high temperatures behind Friday’s rainy system will return to average, with readings in the low 50s Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Those conditions are predicted to continue into the beginning of next week.

If you’re looking for a winter snowstorm, you’ll have to wait, meteorologists say.

Forecasters are predicting temperatures to be around average next week, then go above average for the first week of February.

Homeless shelters

The Pathways day shelter, which is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., has seen an uptick in the number of homeless people coming through in the colder months, Center Director Grace Lewis said.

Lewis said the shelter, which moved to Pathways after Renew Our Community closed in October, has about 90 to 130 clients every day. She said the shelter has been full every day and is having to remove a few walls in the shelter to make more room.

“When it’s cold, it’s rainy, and the fall and winter, early spring months, that’s the busiest,” she said.

Lewis said a good number of the day shelter population is men and the day shelter will send the men at night to the Bethel Men’s Shelter in Rock Hill.

In April, the Bethel United Methodist Church opted to keep their winter shelter open all year. The main shelter has 37 beds and often has a waiting list, The Herald previously reported. With the overflow, which is open through the morning of April 6, 2020, Bethel can serve up to 65 men a night.

But Lewis said there is limited shelter for women at night in the area. She said Salvation Army and Pilgrim’s Inn will take some women and children, but there isn’t an emergency shelter for them.

“Many of our women just have to get turned back out on the street or find somebody to stay with, which can be challenging,” Lewis said. “We really need a solution for single women who need emergency sheltering like men do. We say we don’t have anything and it’s sad to say you don’t have anything. I want to be able to send somebody somewhere.”

Other area shelters include Family Promise of York County and The Haven, another men’s shelter. The Chester Center of Hope provides shelter for homeless women in Chester County.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle