Despite the concerns about global warming circulating last week, Mother Nature played a cruel trick Monday and took the idea of warmth from the forefront of people’s minds.

Relative to Baltimore area standards, Monday was cold … really cold.

Temperatures dipped below 20 degrees while Baltimore officials and community leaders gave advice on how to beat the cold: Get inside a warm place and follow safety tips.

The temperature dropped so quickly that PJM Interconnection, the power grid operator for 13 states including Maryland, saw record power usage in homes Monday.

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“Temperature power usage is high, and the temperatures are low,” PJM spokesman Ray Dotter said Monday. “A high period of electric usage occurs in the morning, and this morning we already exceeded the old wintertime record.”

Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, said that in the past few days the city has fixed about 30 water main breaks a day. He said numbers like this are typical during the winter, but don’t usually come in February.

“You have these [water main] breaks when the weather has a drastic shift,” Kocher said. “This year it happened in February.”

The city provided tips about what people can do to deter the effects of the cold.

Among the tips: Keep water running slowly to avoid freezing pipes; turn off water from outside faucets; bring pets inside; and call 911 in case of an emergency.

For the homeless in the city who struggled to get out of the cold Monday, community volunteers plan to drive through the city and try to help them out.

“We are going to try to give them some sort of warm substance so their bodies can retain some heat,” said Peggy Vick, director of Family Services and Volunteers for The Salvation Army. “And we always encourage them to get out of the cold.”

According to National Weather Service forecasts for the Baltimore area, temperatures will remain cold — between 15 degrees and 35 degrees —through Friday, when the temperature could inch above 35 degrees.