Long Island weather forecast: Temperatures tumble, gusty winds blow through Saturday
Temperatures were set to drop 30 degrees overnight Friday into Saturday, bringing back freezing temperatures after a powerful rain and wind storm hammered Long Island on Friday morning.
The overnight storm lingered through the Friday morning commute. At one point, high winds knocked out power to more than 24,000 homes and businesses across Long Island, caused by falling trees and power lines. Flooding and downed trees briefly closed some streets and railroad tracks, police said.
Downed wires set fire Friday morning to two parked cars in Great Neck and damaged a third, Nassau County Chief Fire Marshal Michael F Uttaro said. Manhasset-Lakeville firefighters arrived and requested PSEG Long Island, which shut off power in the area just before noon.
Islip's 56 degrees Friday morning broke the record high for the day — 55, set in 2017 — but temperatures were expected to tumble toward the 20s by Friday night.
High winds were predicted to linger with a high wind advisory in effect until midnight Saturday. Wind chills were expected to drop into the teens overnight into Saturday. Overnight lows were forecast in the 20s, with clear skies Saturday and highs in the upper-30s to low 40s.
"I hope that folks will have already secured any sort of outdoor objects or decorations," National Weather Service Meteorologist Dominic Ramunni said Friday. "If they haven't and they're still out there and have not blown away, it might be a good idea to do so, because we are going to remain pretty windy here through the rest of the day."
Clear skies with highs in the 40s on Saturday and Sunday were set to give way to another cold front arriving Monday, which could bring the chance for rain or snow through Tuesday morning.
The highest winds reported Friday were on the East End as well as Farmingville, Stony Brook, Farmingdale, Ronkonkoma and Syosset where gusts all reached at least 60 mph, according to the weather service.
PSEG officials said more than 800 line workers, tree trimmers and other workers were working to restore any remaining outages.
Just after 9:30 p.m. Friday, the number of customers without power on Long Island was down to 3,062 after spiking at more than 24,000 affected customers, according to PSEG Long Island’s online outage tracker.
The utility said crews worked in hazardous conditions after 60 mph winds downed wires in many places.
Newsday's Maureen Mullarkey contributed to this story.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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