Jacksonville expands cold weather center services as temperatures drop to possible record lows this weekend<\/a><\/p>\nDuval County has partnered with the National Weather Service on a monthlong pilot program that includes daily briefings at 9 a.m., Andre Ayoub, chief of Duval County\u2019s Emergency Preparedness Division, said. The information is shared with first responders and \u201call our stakeholders,\u201d he said, naming everyone from the sheriff\u2019s office to the military port and electrical authorities.<\/p>\n
Officials warned that colder-than-normal temperatures can increase 911 calls and that prolonged exposure can lead to hypothermia, frostbite and, in severe cases, death within a few hours if people are left exposed.<\/p>\n
Ayoub said the briefings are likely to prompt county warnings to residents. \u201cIf you don\u2019t need to be outside, stay inside. If you need to be outside, these are the precautionary measures you need to take,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nassau County\u2019s emergency operations center said it was not activating a special cold-weather plan, but Callahan Methodist Church, in partnership with the American Red Cross, will open an overnight shelter through Tuesday. The Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center in Fernandina Beach will also serve as a cold-night shelter.<\/p>\n
Clay County officials said they are amplifying National Weather Service messages urging residents to use safe heating sources. The county animal shelter is accepting applications for cold-weather foster homes.<\/p>\n
News4JAX attempted to reach St. Johns County for comment but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Counties across northeast Florida are stepping up preparations as the National Weather Service forecasts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3487,1039,116,118,117,3898,5902],"class_list":["post-138181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-clay-county","tag-duval-county","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nassau-county","tag-st-johns-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}