Get ready for a second day of bone-chilling cold across the North Bay

<p>Freeze warnings were extended into this morning as record and near-record cold gripped the North Bay Area, filling beds at area shelters and bringing the season's second Spare the Air alert.</p><p><NO1><NO>Tuesday morning's lows dipped to the low 20s in most areas, including 21 degrees at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in northern Santa Rosa where crews had to de-ice a Horizon plane.</p><p>Santa Rosa's low was 23 degrees, only 2 degrees above the record low for the date. The high was 44 degrees, keeping area residents bundled up throughout the day.</p><p>“You don't know what a blessing this is to have a place to lay down tonight,” said Jim Fillmore, 61, making his bunk bed Tuesday at Samuel L. Jones Hall, a homeless shelter on Finley Avenue.</p><p>Fillmore, who was wearing a neck brace and said he is in pain from a neck injury, was walking the streets Monday night, mostly around Coddingtown. A gas station attendant let him stand inside and drink coffee for a while, he said.</p><p>He said he would have been out in the cold again Tuesday if not for the shelter, run by Catholic Charities. “I hurt from head to toe,” he said. “I honestly do.”</p><p><NO1><NO><NO1><NO>The cold weather was expected to continue into the weekend with highs eventually reaching the low 50s by Friday.</p><p>A few areas tied low temperature records Tuesday, including San Rafael at 28 degrees.</p><p>“There's another chance (Wednesday). It should be just as cold if not a little colder,” said Diana Henderson, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. </p><p>The service issued a freeze warning from midnight Tuesday to 9 a.m. today.</p><p>And while the arctic blast is remarkable, not many records are likely to fall because of the super-cold run of days this same week in 1972.</p><p>“That one still holds the all time lowest records for most (weather) stations in California,” said Jim Ashby, a climatologist for the Western Regional Weather Center in Reno, where it was minus 4 degrees Tuesday.</p><p>“That one was straight out of the arctic, even more extreme” than this week's weather, he said.</p><p>Other record lows for Dec. 8, 1972, included Lakeport with 12 degrees and Ukiah with 17 degrees. Those cities were 18 and 20 degrees on Tuesday.</p><p>In neighborhoods around Santa Rosa at 7 a.m. Tuesday, temperatures reported by volunteer weather watchers for the National Weather Service ranged from 23.3 degrees to 27.1 degrees.</p><p>Other morning temperatures Tuesday included downtown San Francisco at 38 degrees and 19 degrees at the Napa airport, reported the National Weather Service.</p><p>“Burrrrrr it is 20 degrees this morning with calm conditions, clear sky and a hard frost underway,” wrote a Monte Rio weather watcher early Tuesday on the Weather Service's daily Web log.</p><p>CHP officials warned drivers to continue being cautious, warning that the combination of severe cold and wet pavement leads to a strong possibility of icy roadways.</p><p>About 110 men and women were expected to spend Tuesday night at Jones Hall as the shelter rebounded quickly from a broken water pipe that dampened one dorm room and the kitchen.</p><p>“It'll be ready for people,” site coordinator Maggie Crow said, mopping up the dorm. “If not, we'll bunk ‘em up in the gym. They won't be on the streets.”</p><p>Despite the cold snap, Jones Hall hasn't hit capacity at 120 people, said Nick Baker, who runs Catholic Charities' Homeless Services Center in Santa Rosa. In wet or cold weather, the shelter can take in an additional 18 people.</p><p>As winter wears on, Baker said the shelter's population likely will increase. “This place gets pretty crowded,” he said. “The number we have now is manageable.”</p><p>Danny Thompson, 50, said he is staying at the shelter while he attending school for a commercial driver's license. “I'm stoked,” Thompson said, grinning. “I wouldn't be able to do it if it weren't for this place.”</p><p>Kathleen Thompson, 46, is staying at Jones Hall while she works at a local restaurant and saves money for housing. Homelessness is hard enough, she said. Cold weather “makes it absolutely horrible.”</p><p>About 20 people were expected Tuesday night at a shelter in the Guerneville Veterans Building run by Community Housing Opportunities West, shelter project director Sam Barnhart said.</p><p>For today<NO1>WEDNESDAY<NO>, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued its second Winter Spare the Air Alert of the season, prohibiting most residents from burning wood, manufactured firelogs or any other solid fuel, both indoors and outdoors.</p><p>“Cold temperatures and light winds will create a blanket of unhealthy air pollution over the Bay Area,” said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the district.</p><p>“Children, the elderly and those with heart and lung problems are especially susceptible to the effects of pollution from wood smoke.”</p>