Frigid temperatures forecast for LI
Deepak Tawde, of Plainview, cleans snow off his car after leaving work on County Road 101 in Medford. (Jan. 21, 2013) Credit: James Carbone
Brrr! It'll be the sound of the week when Long Island gets colder than parts of Alaska.
Never mind daytime highs in the 20s -- it may feel like zero and below with wind gusts of up to 30 mph today, according to the National Weather Service in Upton.
The highs in Alaska's Anchorage and Juneau will be in the 30s over the same time period.
"Overall, it's going to be very cold, and the wind certainly will make it feel worse," meteorologist David Stark said.
Tuesday morning, the wind chill will be in the single digits, but the big freeze is reserved for Wednesday, before the cold snap eases Thursday, the service said.
Around sunrise Wednesday, the forecast calls for temperatures in the single digits and wind gusts of up to 20 mph. "The wind chill will feel like temperatures are maybe minus two, minus three, especially across central and eastern Long Island," Stark said. The last time it was this cold was Jan. 22-24, 2011, with night temperatures in the single digits, he said.
"But the winds were very light, so the wind chill may not have been as bad then," he said. "It's been at least two years since we've seen temperatures, in combination with the wind, make it feel like what we're going to see Wednesday and Thursday morning."
On Friday, there is at least a 50 percent chance of snow or rain, and heavy snowfall is possible.
