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Winds Fan Southern California Wildfires While East Coast Chills

Winds Fan Southern California Wildfires While East Coast Chills

(Bloomberg) -- The weather seesaw is offering little respite from California wildfires while the East Coast will grapple with some of the coldest temperatures of the season so far.

The warm and dry Santa Ana winds in Southern California are set to continue. While conditions aren’t forecast to be as dire as last week, fire risks remain elevated through Tuesday, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Winds Fan Southern California Wildfires While East Coast Chills

On the opposite side of the country, a storm will develop out of a secondary low off the East Coast Tuesday, bringing rain and minor slush to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington.

The contrasting weather fortunes are part of a bigger pattern that could persist for weeks, said Rob Carolan, a meteorologist at Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire.

For California, “there is no hope of rain out there at least until the winter solstice” on Dec. 21, Carolan said. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, “that low is going to pull the air out of Canada,” he said, bringing colder temperatures.

Readings could touch 21 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6 Celsius) in New York’s Central Park Wednesday, with temperatures even lower further north and west of the city, the National Weather Service said. Boston could dip to 17 degrees Wednesday, while Philadelphia could hit 19 degrees.

The chill will reach as far south as Florida where freeze warnings, meaning plants can be damaged, were posted until early Monday across much of the north and central parts of the state.

While temperatures will get milder across much of the eastern U.S. after this week, the Northeast will likely stay colder all the way through the Christmas holiday, according to Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Stephen Cunningham, Christine Buurma

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