Point Park University musical theater major Andrew Gruden of Scranton and five friends from home went ice skating at the PPG Plaza rink yesterday afternoon. It was his idea.

"I was nuts," Mr. Gruden said.

Absolutely. Just before 2 p.m., the temperature was somewhere around 10 degrees with a wind chill factor making it feel like 3 below zero. And Mr. Gruden, 20, wasn't even wearing a hat, though he did have on two layers of clothes -- if you want to call the pair of shorts he had on under his long pants an actual layer.

Hey, but according to one meteorologist, the cold front that dropped south from Canada to deep-freeze a big portion of the United States was no big deal.

"This isn't anything extra," said Michael Saeger of State College-based AccuWeather. "Even where it's really cold in the upper Midwest, very few records are being broken. It's pretty much ... a run-of-the-mill cold snap."

Nevertheless, it provided the area's coldest temperatures since February.

For the record, the low at Pittsburgh International Airport was 5 degrees at 6:48 a.m. yesterday and 4 at the National Weather Service offices in Moon. But earlier in the day, when it was 4 degrees, there were winds of 12 mph that made it feel like 20 below zero, weather service meteorologist John Darley said.

The high yesterday was expected to reach between 13 and 17 under sunny skies before dipping to 7 last night with a high today of 24. Tonight's low is forecast for 21 with a high of 29 tomorrow.

The record low for Jan. 20, Mr. Darley said, is 18 below zero in 1985. The record low high temperature is 1 on the same date. For the month of January overall, the record low high is 3 below zero, recorded in both 1982 and 1994.

Normal temperatures for this time of year are highs around 35 and lows of 19.

That's on the horizon, Mr. Darley said.

"As the high pressure system moves off to the East, we're going to have a return of southerly flow in a change of air mass, returning us back to more seasonal temperatures," he said.

Those can't come soon enough for the homeless.

All 34 beds were full at the Light of Life Rescue Mission on East North Avenue on the North Side Saturday night, said staff member Scott Barbour. Yesterday, several men stood outside the mission waiting for it to reopen for the night. One said he spent Saturday night in a sleeping bag in a North Side school.

"We've been filled since the weather turned cold," Mr. Barbour said.

About 100 men and women crowded into the Severe Weather shelter, which Operation Safety Net operates for Allegheny County in the basement of Smithfield United Church, 620 Smithfield St., Downtown. Eight of the women were transferred to an "overflow shelter."

The Severe Weather shelter opens whenever the temperature drops to 20, including wind chill factors.

"One hundred is a little bit above average but not unusual," said Linda Sheets, director of component services for Operation Safety Net, which is part of Mercy Behavioral Health.

People who depend on public transportation also were hoping for a quick return to more seasonal temperatures.

"It's bitter cold," said Josh Devlin, 18, of Downtown, who was waiting at a stop at Fourth Avenue and Wood Street for a bus to McKeesport. "I have on a thermal shirt, three layers. It's cutting right through."

The cold was tough on motorists, too, if you go by the number of emergency calls made to AAA East Central.

"An average Sunday for December was 658 calls for 24 hours," Bevi Powell, director of communications, said. But by about 5 p.m. her office had more than 1,000 calls since midnight Saturday, most from people whose cars had dead batteries.

"We have all our tow drivers very busy," she said.