Warmer Temperatures May Come to U.S. East Coast by Mid-January

Temperatures are expected to rise above normal in the eastern U.S. by the middle of January while plunging to frigid levels across the western part of the U.S. and into Canada.

The eastern U.S. may be 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 to 4.4 Celsius) above normal from eastern Texas to New England and southern Quebec from Jan. 10 to 14, according to Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland.

At the same time, temperatures may reach 5 to 8 degrees below normal from Alberta, Canada, to Arizona and New Mexico.

“The East is mostly warm-dominated, while impressive cold could target western Canada and the interior U.S. West,” Rogers wrote today in a note to clients.

Energy traders look to long-range forecasts to gauge potential fuel use. Above-normal temperatures in the large cities of the Midwest and Northeast may decrease demand for energy to warm homes and businesses, suppressing natural gas and heating oil prices.

Temperatures across most of the U.S. will be below normal for the remainder of this week, Rogers said. They are expected to become more seasonal from Jan. 5 to Jan. 9. The upper Great Plains and parts of the Midwest may have temperatures 5 to 8 degrees above normal, he said.

In New York, the normal average temperature for Jan. 9 is about 33 degrees, according to MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It’s 29 in Boston; 24 in Chicago; 32 in St. Louis; 53 in Houston; 19 in Calgary, Alberta; 42 in Seattle; and 55 in Burbank, California.

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

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net