Light snow in LI forecast -- for now

An Islandwide dusting of snow was forecast to fall overnight, the National Weather Service said, but the most significant storm so far this year is predicted to arrive late Friday night.

Look for about a half-inch of snow on eastern Long Island Friday morning, and a trace farther west into Nassau County, said Joey Picca, a weather service meteorologist based at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton.

Sunny skies are expected Friday afternoon but after midnight and into Saturday morning, snow will finally start accumulating, said Picca.

Forecasters expect 2 to 4 inches, with higher amounts on the North Shore and western Long Island, and lighter snowfall on the East End and South Shore of Suffolk County, where snow is more likely to mix with rain during the day.

Rain and snow should move out of the area by late Saturday but there's a possibility of more rain later Sunday. So far this winter, only a trace of snow has been recorded at the weather service's monitoring station at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. That was on Jan. 13.