Forecast: Rain clears in afternoon for sunny Labor Day holiday
Jack Boyle, 1, of Hicksville, feeds a goat at the Holtsville Wildlife and Ecology Center in Holtsville on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. The sun is expected to make a real comeback on Long Island on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Credit: James Carbone
Labor Day is expected to bring sunny skies and warm temperatures to Long Island, following a rainy weekend to close out the first few days of September.
News 12 Long Island meteorologist Mike Rizzo said the rainy Labor Day weekend weather shouldn’t be a surprise: There have been only five completely dry weekends since May 1.
“It was incredible,” Rizzo said of this summer’s weather. “We only had five weekends where it was all just sunshine.” He added there were “a very few . . . weekends where it was nice weather.” Remnants of Hurricane Harvey contributed to Sunday’s soggy start, bringing clouds and rain until the sun shone in the afternoon.
But things will brighten up for the observance of Labor Day on Monday when the sun makes a real comeback, with great weather for barbecues, visits to the beach, tanning and boating trips. The high will reach 79 degrees and the overnight low will be 66.
“Monday’s going to be an awesome day” with bright sunshine across the Island, Rizzo said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said Monday’s temperatures will be about average for this time of year, “maybe a little above.”
On Tuesday, when many Long Islanders return to work and school, skies will continue to be sunny with a high of 82 degrees and the low overnight of 67. But a slow-moving cold front is forecast to approach Tuesday night, bringing rain to Long Island through Wednesday, Pollina said.
And get ready for possible impacts on the Island from another hurricane.
“Lend an ear to the forecast for Irma on Tuesday,” Rizzo said. The Category 3 storm was working its way across the Caribbean on Sunday, but Rizzo said that by Tuesday there should be a “better understanding of where the storm will track.”
Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Upton, said in any case to expect more wet weather midweek.
“There’s a cold front that moves across the region and an area of low pressure that’s going to move along the Canadian-U.S. border, and that’s going to be the precipitation.”
Wednesday will have mostly cloudy skies with a chance of thunderstorms late in the day with a high of 78 and a low of 65.
Lots of clouds are in the forecast again for Thursday, along with scattered showers and a high of 72 and a low of 59.
The clouds hang around to start next weekend on Friday when Long Islanders might again want to keep their umbrellas handy. A few light showers or sprinkles are possible. The high will reach 72 and the low will drop to 58.
With Stefanie Dazio
