Long Island weather: Chance of wintry mix of rain, sleet, freezing rain

An expected wintry mix will switch to rain overnight on Long Island before clearing on Tuesday, with another possibility of showers at night, forecasters said.

Aside from Friday, which is New Year’s Eve, rain and warmer-than-usual temperatures perching just below 50 during the days and staying above freezing at night can be expected for much of the week, thanks to a series of West Coast storms making their way east.

Tuesday’s odds of rain, clustered before 8 a.m., are 20%. After that, it should be cloudy with a high of about 49, the weather service said. Rain is more likely that night: The odds rise to 70%, though less than a 10th of an inch may fall.

That rain probably lasts into Wednesday; the chances are 50% until 1 p.m.

Thursday may also begin with rain: The odds are 30% before 1 p.m., according to the weather service.

Nighttime clouds should give way to a sunny Friday, and though the clouds may return that night, no rain is forecast until Saturday’s New Year’s Day, when the odds are 50% with a forecast high of 47.

Even more rain is forecast both Saturday night and Sunday morning, which share the same 60% probability.

The snowfall totals this season are running below average in some parts of the country, including the tri-state area. In Islip, for example, only 0.3" has fallen versus the 3.9" average usually has fallen by Dec. 26, the weather service said.

This week’s rainy weather mostly springs from Pacific low-pressure storm systems or troughs.

"The unrelenting troughing pattern over the West Coast finally makes its way a little farther east to kick off the final week of 2021," the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center explained. "This results in an increasingly active storm track in the East as storm systems originating out West track through the eastern half of the Lower 48 this week."