Long Island forecast: Wet weekend and rain on Christmas

Let’s cut to the chase on the forecast. White Christmas?

“Unfortunately, it’s looking more like a wet Christmas than a white Christmas,” said meteorologist Nelson Vaz of the National Weather Service in Upton.

There’s a snowflake-sized chance of snow on Monday morning, meteorologists said, but rain is almost certain and if anyone sees snow, it’ll be the northern edges of Nassau and northwest Suffolk.

Long Islanders should gear up for a stretch of rain as they make their last-minute holiday preparations.

Friday into Saturday and all day Saturday, a steady light to moderate rain will fall, ending after 8 p.m., Vaz said. Saturday’s highs will be unseasonably warm, in the 50s rather than the 40s of a typical December day, he said.

Sunday clears, bringing sunny skies and highs in the low 40s — a brief respite from precipitation, which is expected to make a comeback Sunday night into Christmas morning.

With rain falling on white Christmas dreams, the big weather story Christmas Day will be the winds, Vaz said. Sustained winds of 20 mph are forecast, with gusts of up to 40 mph expected, he said.

“That’s enough where it can cause decorations to blow around if they’re not tied down properly,” the meteorologist said.

But dream on, Vaz said. The weather system heading southeast can intensify in the next day or so, he said, bringing a picture-perfect holiday.

Said Vaz, “Even I wouldn’t mind a white Christmas.”

With Patricia Kitchen