Forecast: Mild, sunny week ahead for winter's arrival, holiday weekend travel

If you’re traveling for the Christmas holiday, the forecast may be one less thing to worry about.

Long Islanders can expect a seasonably mild, sunny week leading up to Christmas Day, even as residents recover from scattered flooding and power outages from Monday morning’s nor'easter.

Temperatures will average in the low to mid-40s during the day, with little chance of rain, and drop down to the high 20s and low 30s at night, the National Weather Service said.

The winter solstice arrives Thursday night in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the shortest day of the calendar year. While the sun will rise at 7:15 a.m. and set at 4:30 p.m., Long Islanders can make the most of the daylight with a sunny forecast and a high of 42 degrees.

Christmas Day will be the warmest day on the forecast, with a high of 47 degrees.

James Tomasini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that due to a high pressure system building across the region, the whole week is expected to remain dry. “The next chance we have isn’t until Monday night,” he said, predicting a rainy rather than a white Christmas evening.

The cleanup from Monday's storm continued in communities hit by flooding in low-lying areas throughout Long Island.

Freeport Mayor Robert T. Kennedy said he toured the village's Nautical Mile, a strip of businesses along the Woodcleft Canal. Although minor flooding was evident in some places, businesses were mostly unscathed due to recently installed catch basins.

The village installed six of these earlier this year to capture runoff from rainstorms and intends to install six more next year, Kennedy said.