BIG CHILL SET TO DESCEND ON A.V. TODAY.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Temperatures down into the teens are expected to hit the Antelope Valley tonight and Thursday as an Arctic air mass spills cold, dry air into the California desert.

Antelope Valley temperatures will not only be extremely cold, but low humidity means the air temperature after sunset will drop quickly to produce eight or 10 hours of subfreezing temperature.

``The air mass is actually coming from upper Canada and it's moving its way down. It's going to settle in Utah. From there the air is going to move its way into our area,'' National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said Tuesday.

Overnight low temperatures tonight and early Thursday are expected to drop to 15 to 23. Today's afternoon temperatures will stay in the mid-40s to lower 50s, with winds hitting 15-20 mph.

Thursday's highs are expected to be in the 50s, with winds from 20 to 30 mph and overnight lows early Friday around 19 to 27 degrees.

Overnight temperatures are expected to stay around freezing through the weekend.

Temperatures Tuesday were only 40 degrees at dawn in Palmdale and 39 degrees in Lancaster, though it felt like 30 degrees because of the wind chill from gusts over 20 mph, the Weather Service said.

Winter temperatures in the Antelope Valley can get cold enough to freeze and burst homes' water pipes, which one local plumber says happens about every five years.

``It has to be really cold for three days or so, and that includes in the daytime,'' Bryant & Higgins Plumbing foreman Eddie Beckett said.

In December 1990, temperatures as low as 3 degrees froze pipes in hundreds of homes and caused damage estimated in the millions of dollars.

Newer homes are usually safe, because their pipes are supposed to be insulated, Beckett said. Freezing usually hits older homes with uninsulated pipes in the attic or in crawl spaces under the floor.

Pipes leading to outdoor faucets or around sprinkler valves also can freeze. But that can be prevented by wrapping them with foam insulation, Beckett said. Outside pipes shouldn't be wrapped with fiberglass insulation or cloth that can soak up water, because that can actually hasten the freezing, he said.

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Flags are flapping at Lancaster City Hall on Tuesday as the wind chill caused the already frigid conditions in the Antelope Valley to feel 10 degrees colder.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

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