Long Island snowstorm: Black ice, travel disruptions, few power outages

Long Islanders dug out Saturday after the second major snowstorm of the season dumped as much as 8 inches of snow in parts of Suffolk County, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm led to widespread problems at metropolitan airports with about 1 in 5 flights departing Kennedy and LaGuardia airports canceled Saturday, according to FlightAware, an online flight tracking service. More than 850 additional flights were delayed at metropolitan area airports and 1,300 flights were canceled nationwide.  

The weather service cautioned motorists to watch out for potential black ice on roadways Saturday evening into Sunday. Temperatures are expected to be "well below freezing and winds should remain on the lighter side, preventing some of the roads and other surfaces from drying out," the special weather statement said.

Traffic was otherwise moving close to normal Saturday across Suffolk and Nassau on state roads like the Long Island Expressway, Route 25A and Sunrise Highway, according to the state Department of Transportation’s 511 website. The Long Island Rail Road's branches were operating on or close to schedule.

Elizabeth Flagler, a PSEG Long Island spokeswoman, said the storm caused "minimal scattered outages across the service territory."

In Manorville, heavy snow brought down wires on Carter Road, causing an outage that briefly affected about 187 customers, Flagler said.

Weather conditions are expected to improve Sunday with a forecast that calls for partly sunny skies and a high of about 42 degrees, according to the weather service. Rain is expected Sunday night into Monday, when the high temperature will climb to about 51 degrees in some parts of Long Island.

Less of a punch

The storm moved quicker than expected and was partially thwarted by a warm section of air that kept the system from delivering a harder punch, the weather service said. Earlier forecasts had predicted as much as 10 inches.

"Because of that, what happened was instead of getting snow, we got sleet," NWS meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki said early Saturday. "Forecasting that warmer nose of air was always a factor in the system. A lot of the guidance we were looking at, we really thought it was going to stay kind of just outside of our area."

The western portion of Long Island saw less snow with areas in Nassau County reporting between 4 and 5 inches of snow, according to the weather service.

A measurement in Ridge reported 8 inches of accumulation, whereas other measurements in Suffolk reported anywhere from 4 to 7½ inches, according to the weather service.

The NWS said an official measurement at the agency’s Central Park site registered 4.3 inches of snow Saturday morning, making it the first time New York City has experienced more than 4 inches of snowfall since Jan. 28-29, 2022, when it got 8.3 inches.

Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip got 6.6 inches, according to official NWS totals.

Elsewhere in Suffolk, Babylon and Orient got 7½ inches of accumulation.

A measurement in Farmingdale reported 5 inches — the highest in Nassau County.

David Stark, an NWS meteorologist, said the January 2022 blizzard, which walloped Long Island, "would be the last time we had more than a half foot of snow" at the Islip site. However, a winter storm earlier this month led to public readings around 8 inches in parts of Suffolk County, he said.