Long Island forecast: Rain Wednesday, then cold front arrives Thursday

Enjoy the milder weather while you can — the cold returns on Thursday.

"A cold front will bring the relatively mild spell of weather to an end by Thursday. Single digits wind chills are expected Thursday night," the National Weather Service said in its forecast discussion.

Above-average temperatures for mid-January continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with highs reaching the mid-40s. The mercury will fall to the high 20s by Thursday afternoon, with cloudy skies and winds gusting to 24 mph, the weather service said.

The drop in temperatures will convert rain coming late Wednesday into a wintry mix or snow by Thursday, but there’s no need to bring out the ice melt and the shovels, meteorologist Jim Connolly said.

"You could see some flakes," Connolly said of Thursday morning's forecast. "But we’re expecting no accumulation with that."

Other than Saturday, when the high will be in the low 40s, seasonable cold will continue through the weekend and next week, with highs in the mid-30s.

A second system will move toward Long Island on Saturday but forecasters believe that system will remain mostly offshore, allowing for a dry yet possibly windy holiday weekend.

"There's going to be some cold air building in," Connolly said.

High temperatures Sunday will reach the upper 30s but dip to the low 30s Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Models show another possible system hitting Long Island early next week, but it is too soon to tell for sure, Connolly said.

"The pattern suggests that we should at least monitor it," he said.