Gray end to the week

Mainly cloudy skies will be the story heading into the weekend, with a chance of a few scattered showers for Long Island.

Any leftover rain from Wednesday night will begin to taper off Thursday morning, with mostly cloudy skies on tap for the rest of the day. Temperatures will be in the low to mid-50s, with a light breeze from the east.

Despite a very slight chance of a shower Friday, skies will be mostly cloudy through the end of the week, with a few peeks of sun possible.

The weekend looks similar, but the sun should mix in a bit more and temperatures will warm up to near 60 by Sunday.

Record highs and lows for April 7:

* 81 (1991), 20 (1982) at Kennedy

* 81 (1991), 24 (2007) at MacArthur

* 73 (1997), 27 (2007) at Republic

* 71 (1997), 16 (2007) at Gabreski

Source: National Weather Service

This Day in Weather History:

1980 - Severe thunderstorms spawned tornadoes that ripped through central Arkansas. The thunderstorms also produce high winds and baseball-size hail. Five counties were declared disaster areas by President Jimmy Carter.

Source: The daily weather facts are compiled by Hugh Crowther of the Aviation Weather Center. Crowther is a weather historian and has collected and organized weather facts for every day of the year.

Geoffrey Bansen is a recent graduate of Stony Brook University, with a degree in atmospheric science/meteorology.