Long Island weather: 'Stuck' with a week of extreme cold, before possible coastal storm Saturday

Bundle up, Long Island!

The region’s extreme cold is expected to continue into mid-February, according to Newsday meteorologist Bill Korbel, who, along with other forecasters, is monitoring a coastal system that may dump more snow on Nassau and Suffolk over the weekend.

"The next couple of weeks, into the middle of February, our temperatures will be well below normal, especially next week, when we will experience this bitter arctic air," Korbel said.

The dangerous cold is exacerbated by the storm that dumped large amounts of snow across the Plains and into Canada and the Northeast. Snow on the ground, which, Korbel said, is helping to keep temperatures on Long Island and beyond frigid.

The National Weather Service said 13 inches of snow fell at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip this weekend. The last time that much snow fell on Long Island was Jan. 29, 2022, when 23.5 inches were recorded at MacArthur.

The service has issued a cold weather advisory for Nassau from midnight Tuesday to 10 a.m. Wednesday. It warns that the wind chills and cold "could result in hypothermia if precautions are not taken" and advises to "Use caution while traveling outside. Wear appropriate clothing, a hat, and gloves."

The NWS said subzero wind chills as cold as minus 5 to minus 8 degrees are expected into Wednesday morning, with the coldest wind chills hitting between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. The high on Wednesday is expected to be about 20 degrees. That means that Freeport will stay freezing, Islip will be icy and Northport will feel like the North Pole.

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: See the aftermath of the winter storm on LI

The cold will continue through Thursday and Friday, National Weather Service meteorologist David Sparks said, with single-digit temperatures at night. The high temperature for both days will also top out at about 20 degrees.

Friday morning and Saturday morning will be especially cold, Sparks said, with temperatures in the single digits and wind chills that will make it feel 5 or 10 degrees below zero.

Sparks said meteorologists are tracking a coastal system that might bring additional snow this weekend, although he cautioned it’s still too early to tell if Long Island will get additional precipitation.

"There is a chance we could see a little bit of snow," Sparks said, "a little bit more likely mainly on Sunday, if it were to happen. Otherwise, it is going to be another chilly weekend."

A Tuesday evening advisory from the weather service said: "The latest modeling continues to show a strong low pressure developing along or just off the southeast coast on Saturday. The main question regarding this system is how close will the low track for potential impacts, if any, to our local area."

If the snowstorm doesn’t hit Long Island, high temperatures could reach a relatively balmy 40 degrees on Sunday or Monday, Sparks said. Otherwise, expect a high on those days of 32.

The good news, according to Korbel? In just a few months, Long Island residents will be complaining about how hot it is.

As the region continued to recover from the storm, most roads have been cleared. But town officials acknowledged some residents were complaining their streets remain in poor condition.

"We are dealing with them as they come in," Brookhaven Superintendent of Highways Dan Losquadro said of the complaints. "There certainly are some [roads] where we realize we need to push back or widen some of them even further."

In some cases, he said, town crews have had to return to streets that already had been plowed because residents had dumped snow back into the roads. That, in turn, delays crews from cleaning other roads, Losquadro said.

"It takes away resources from other areas," he said.

Town crews have been plowing since 6 a.m. Sunday with three- to four-hour breaks, he said, adding he planned to send many employees home to rest Tuesday night.

Crews will be back out before dawn Wednesday, before school buses hit the road, he said.

Newsday's Carl MacGowan contributed to this story.