Long Island weather: Cold and sunny with weekend warm-up, forecasters say

The cold Canadian air that invaded Long Island on Thursday night will stay in the area Friday, as temperatures stay five to 10 degrees cooler than average, the National Weather Service said.

After an overnight in which lows are expected to be as low as the teens, along with wind chills pushing temperatures into the single digits, Friday's high will struggle to reach the freezing mark, the weather service said.

Along with ample sunshine, Friday is predicted to be breezy, with wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

Saturday should be sunny and warmer, forecasters said. 

"As the surface high pressure shifts south of the region, westerly flow will allow temperatures to rebound into the middle to upper 40s by Saturday with conditions remaining dry," the weather service said in its regional summary Wednesday.

Long Islanders can anticipate a sunny weekend that will be warmer, with thermometers rising around 10 degrees.

No rain is forecast until Monday night, when the odds are 50-50, the weather service said.

Temperatures are expected to be in the 40s Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the weather service said.

Long Island, like much of the metropolitan area, has gotten a lot less snow — about 10 inches — since Oct. 1, 2019, until now, said weather service meteorologist Peter Wichrowski. 

The current total for that period is just 6.8 inches, Wichrowski said. Normally, about 17.4 inches will have fallen.

Offsetting the lack of snow, rainfall is running slightly ahead: 2.32 inches so far this month, which tops the 2.1 inches usually seen. But the about 7.1 inches of snow usually seen in February is nowhere in sight — at least for now.