Long Island weather: Up to about 2 inches of snow this weekend

Long Islanders should expect a chilly weekend but will likely be spared any significant snowfall, forecasters said late Saturday morning.

The storm that was forecast on Friday to leave as much 6 inches of snow is trending to be a “nonevent” as of about 10:45 a.m. Saturday, said Matt Hammer, meteorologist with News 12 Long Island.

“We’ll have a few sprinkles around today, otherwise it’ll stay mostly cloudy with highs around 40 or so,” Hammer said Saturday.

A few scattered snow showers will come through the area Saturday night, Hammer said.

“Basically what happened is our system is going to be developing to far south and east once it gets offshore,” Hammer said. “This means less snow, and really not much of anything at this point, for Long Island.”

Hammer said computer models used to predict weather patterns “have not handled this well at all.”

Long Islanders should expect “at most” a trace amount of snow to 1 inch into early Sunday, Hammer said. The Twin Forks have a slight chance of seeing “a slushy inch or two,” Hammer said.

The National Weather Service’s forecast for Long Island shows about 1 to 2 inches of snow possible Saturday night into Sunday.

Temperatures are below the normal for this time of year, which is 48 degrees for Saturday, said Jay Engle, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Upton bureau. Temperatures will drop to about 30 degrees overnight into Sunday, Engle said.

Sunday’s going to feel much colder thanks to a wind chill that will make temperatures in the lower 40s feels like the upper 20s to low 30s, Engle said. A 30 percent chance of snow develops again before 8 a.m. Sunday, according to the weather service forecast. A north wind is expected up to 21 mph with gusts as high as 34 mph.

“It’s a pretty cold period we’re in right now,” Engle said. The colder-than-normal weather is expected to last through the week, with another “reinforcing cold shot of air” Tuesday night into Wednesday, he said.

SEE PHOTOSLIers' best snow photos

While spring arrives at 6:29 a.m. on Monday, temperatures will still be cool, Hammer said. Temperatures will be in the 40s to start the week on Monday and Tuesday but will quickly return to the 30s for Wednesday and Thursday.

“In terms of any long-term warm ups I think we’ll start to see some more consistently mild temperatures a few days before April,” Hammer said.