Long Island weather: Sunny with highs in the 50s; rain for New Year's Eve

Friday will be sunny with a high of 51 degrees, but downpours are expected to begin Saturday afternoon and continue through the night — then sunny skies will return on New Year’s Day, forecasters said.

“There is very good agreement among the global guidance around the timing of precipitation shutting off just after the New Year's festivities and towards 6 zulu (1 a.m.) Sunday,” the National Weather Service said.

The mild temperatures will carry on into 2023, with daytime highs in the 50s over the next seven days and nighttime lows bouncing around the upper 30s and then slowly ascending to the mid-40s.

That is more than 10 degrees above average for the tri-state area — and the reason why any umbrella-wielding Times Square partiers will only have to withstand rain, not snow.

Similarly, zero snow is forecast for the next storm, timed to start on Tuesday.

Cloudy, then rain

The high pressure system clearing the New York metropolitan area’s skies on Friday, now perched over the Atlantic, will move further out to sea Friday night, the weather service said.

Fog may greet any early rising New Yorkers on the last day of 2022.

Then, the weather service said, “On Saturday look for an overcast start with scattered shower activity becoming increasingly likely as the day progresses, especially towards the afternoon...look for more widespread rain to arrive late in the day and for the evening."

Less than an half an inch of rain is expected, with the “steadiest rain” falling from the late afternoon through the evening.

“After midnight and into the pre-dawn hours on Sunday morning, look for the rain to taper off from west to east as mid-level drying ensues quickly," the weather service said.

The rain-creating low pressure system departs Sunday, bound for the Canadian Maritimes, as high pressures starts arising to the west of this region.

The difference in air pressure between those two systems will create “a gusty northwesterly flow,” with top speeds of 30 mph on Sunday.

Sunshine on Monday will precede possible showers from Tuesday to Wednesday, and possibly Thursday, that will spring from “a complex low pressure system” that forms to the west, along with its “parent low” heading to the Great Lakes, forecasters said.