Hundreds without power after freak storm

Saturday's unseasonable snowstorm, which brought strong gusts of wind and as much as four inches of snow to parts of Long Island, was largely a memory by Sunday morning.

The brunt of the storm had tapered off mostly by midnight Sunday, said John Murray, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Upton office.

Still, the storm left several hundred Long Island Power Authority customers without power, along with scattered fallen trees and downed wires, and several accidents, including one on Route 231 in North Babylon in which an ambulance skidded into an existing accident on an icy road.

LIPA reported 779 customers without power Sunday morning, mostly in Suffolk County.

Long Islanders should expect dry weather Sunday and Monday, Murray said. Temperatures on Sunday were forecast to reach the upper 40s, warming up to the lower 50s on Monday.

While some isolated gusts could reach 35 miles per hour Sunday, the high winds should taper off by Sunday evening, Murray said.

Snow totals from Saturday's storm reached 4 inches in Mineola and 2.1 inches in Massapequa, but only a trace to a few tenths of an inch in Suffolk County, which received mostly rain, Murray said. Winds were highest in Suffolk County, with 55 mile-per-hour gusts recorded in Eaton's Neck. Winds reached 52 miles per hour on Fire Island, and 51 miles per hour on Gilgo Beach.

SEE PHOTOSSnowstorms that buried LI over the past 100-plus years