A cold embrace for Valentine's weekend

The water will be running from Mike McGraw's kitchen faucet all day Saturday, and again all day Sunday. And whatever that adds to his water bill, he says, will be a whole lot cheaper than the potential alternative: a burst pipe.

Given the weather forecast, McGraw, head of the Pennsylvania Association of Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors, suspects this is going to be a banner weekend for the region's plumbers. "They're going to have a pretty good call in frozen pipes," he said.

For Valentine's weekend, nature is about to give the region, and the entire Northeast, one mighty cold embrace.

Sunday is likely to be the second-coldest Feb. 14 among the 142 Valentine's Days in the period of record, with a low flirting with the record of 2 and highs in the teens.

With temperatures falling, winds gusting as high as 45 mph, and wind chills below zero in the wake of a potent Arctic front, Saturday won't be a day at the beach either - except for some hearty souls in Sea Isle City, N.J.

About 2,200 people are expected to participate in the Polar Bear Plunge at 2 p.m. Ambulances will be on hand just in case, said Katherine Custer, director of the Sea Isle City Department of Community Services. She said participants will be encouraged not to luxuriate in the waves.

"We want people to get in and get out," she said.

This will be region's coldest outbreak of the season so far; it hasn't been this frigid since Presidents Day weekend a year ago. Temperatures that day, Feb. 16 - low 3, high 17 - were quite similar to what is expected Sunday.

"It's like déjà vu," said Jana Tidwell, spokeswoman for AAA Midatlantic, which already was seeing an uptick in battery trouble calls Friday. "Last year we set a single-day call record on Presidents Day itself."

Philadelphia and other counties in the region have declared Code Blue cold-weather emergencies, and extra measures will be taken to watch out for the homeless. In Chester County, warming centers will be available in Coatesville, Kennett Square, and West Chester.

McGraw, who was in the plumbing business for 35 years, advises people to keep at least a little water running, as he is doing at his home in Thorndale; open any cabinet doors that are enclosing pipes to allow in some heat; and keep a hair dryer handy in case the pipes should freeze.

And do keep the heater running. "The cost that it will take to run that heater is far less than it costs to fix frozen pipes," he said.

Fortunately, the cold will be short-lived. A major East Coast storm is forecast to affect the region Monday night and Tuesday. Precipitation might start as snow, but the predicted track should result in mostly rain, forecasters said.

The winter of 2015-16, almost certainly destined to become one of the warmest on record, is expected to return to its milder ways quickly, with temperatures well into the 40s next week.

twood@phillynews.com610-313-8210@woodt15

Staff writers Michael Boren, Michaelle Bond, and Claudia Vargas contributed to this article.