Torrential downpours end for Long Island, bringing days of tumultuous weather to a close

Long Island's struggle with a whirlwind of weather extremes was forecast to ease Tuesday, but not before the region had been through three days that included a heat wave that baked Fourth of July revelers, thunderstorms that robbed thousands of power and torrential rains that soaked roadways and disrupted flights.

Some rain will linger into Tuesday. There's a 30% chance of showers, mainly before 11 a.m. Then, the rest of the day is predicted to be mostly cloudy with a high near 74 and low around 65, according to the National Weather Service.

The service's flood advisories for the Island expired late Monday,

"We’re seeing mainly just minor flooding reports now for those areas," meteorologist James Tomasini told Newsday just after 4 p.m. Monday as the heavy rain began to move out of the region.

All this havoc was "somewhat correlated," Tomasini said. "We had so much heat and so much moisture in our area, that provided a lot for these showers and storms to feed off of ... It was just the pattern that we’ve been in."

By 9 p.m. Monday, some areas of Long Island had received more than 4 inches of rain.

North Massapequa received 4.62 inches, while 4.41 inches fell in West Islip, according to the service. Other hard-hit areas include North Babylon (4.33 inches), Orient Point (3.83 inches) and Long Beach (3.46 inches).

The soaking rain followed a severe thunderstorm Saturday night with winds in excess of 80 mph in some parts of Long Island, with its wrath concentrated on Suffolk County. The damage, combined with the heavy rains, persuaded both county executives to declare states of emergency.

The storm marked the end of the heat wave that baked Long Island crowds who came out nevertheless to celebrate the Fourth of July. The temperature just missed the record high for Independence Day on Long Island, which was 97 degrees in 2010.

Monday, as the downpours fell across Long Island, reports of fallen trees came in from throughout the area, including in East Meadow, Oyster Bay and West Hempstead, as well as Cold Spring Harbor, Shirley and Stony Brook, according to spokespeople for both counties' police departments.

Trees in about 100 different locations throughout the Town of Huntington fell since 8 p.m. Saturday, including a few that fell during stormy conditions on Monday, according to town spokesperson Christine Geed. About 5 p.m., eight crews of town highway department employees were scattered across the township to remedy flooded areas.

"A lot of the flooding areas are naturally receding, so by the time we get to the complaints, some of them have already dissipated," Geed said. "No one particular area is more impacted than the others."

Some areas, including Riverhead, were unscathed by flooding on Monday, but still grappling with havoc left over from thunderstorms Saturday evening. Residents endured "tornado-type weather" with "60 to 80 mph winds," said Mike Zaleski, the Town of Riverhead highway superintendent.

"We had, and I’m not exaggerating, 50 trees or large limbs downed in the roadways. We’re still doing storm cleanup now. There’s a lot of stuff tangled up in wires," he said. "All roads are passable now, but I really think Riverhead Town got the worst of it."

PSEG Long Island reported more than 3,000 customers out of power as of 6 p.m. on Monday.

The utility put out a statement saying that as of Monday morning, power had been restored to more than 34,800 customers affected by the thunderstorms that arrived about 8 p.m. Saturday.

"The storm was fast-moving and stronger than forecast, with wind gusts as high as 84 MPH, hail and heavy rain. The damage is extensive in many locations. PSEG Long Island tree crews have dealt with more than 400 downed trees and 320 fallen limbs," the statement said.

New York's metropolitan airports saw significant delays and cancellations Monday amid heavy rains pounding the region.

Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark were among the 10 airports nationwide Monday that were experiencing the most delays and cancellations because of weather or other factors, according to FlightAware's Misery Map.

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said the state of emergency for the county will continue for 30 days. In Nassau, which avoided the worst of the weekend storm, County Executive Bruce Blakeman said the state of emergency would go through Tuesday at 6 a.m. due to "the likelihood of extreme precipitation and potential flooding and downed trees."

Separately, Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti declared a state of emergency for the town through 6 a.m. Tuesday. "All clinics, outdoor lessons, outdoor recreation classes, and swimming lessons are canceled" Monday, Ferretti said in a statement.