Winter returning to Long Island as temps to drop 25 degrees below normal from Friday into Saturday
During the last cold snap to hit Long Island, a bundled-up man walks on Main Street in Riverhead on Dec. 26, when the high reached 30 degrees. Credit: John Roca
Long Island's mild winter is about to get a brief, and extremely cold, interruption, forecasters say.
Snow flurries may continue on and off overnight and into Wednesday morning but it should gradually clear by the afternoon.
Wednesday and Thursday will be sunny with highs of 36 and 40, going down to the 20s at night. Come Friday, however, winter's wrath will be roaring back, “as a quick shot of arctic air arrives Friday into Saturday,” the National Weather Service said.
Thanks to the polar jet’s northern branch, the cold will “rival the air mass that arrived this past Christmas Eve, with temperatures Friday night and Saturday night about 25 degrees below normal.”
Saturday’s highs, though under sunny skies, in most locations on Long Island will top out around 18, with a low of 6 at night. Gusts of wind could reach 35 mph, producing exceptionally fierce wind chills that could plunge the real-feel temperatures to between minus 10 and minus 20.
And yet — once again — winter cannot seem to sustain itself, at least in the tristate area — unlike swaths of the South and Midwest now contending with ice storms and snow.
“This will be a fleeting air mass, in and out as fast as it came in,” the weather service said, as there is no blocking system to stop it from exiting the region.
As warmer air comes in Saturday overnight, there is a chance for some condensation on the roads that could produce slick driving conditions, the weather service said. There is also a chance for snow showers Sunday morning and in the evening, but temperatures will bounce back, with highs in the mid-40s. A similar high is expected Monday with sunny skies.
