Long Island weather: Sunny Sunday after nor'easter downpours, strong wind gusts

Heavy rain and gusty winds swept across Long Island Saturday, but the good news is the downpours have left and a sunny Sunday is ahead, forecasters said.

Saturday’s coastal storm qualified as a nor’easter, the general term for the kinds of systems that blow through the mid-Atlantic and New England states, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Morrin.

The same storm that blanketed the Island with 1 to 2 inches of rain Saturday brought high winds and heavy snow to New England, with the weather service predicting the system to bring up to 18 inches of snow in some areas through Monday.

Things were calmer on Long Island.

The highest amount of rain the Island saw was in Southampton — 2.6 inches, with wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph, said Joe Pollina, a meteorologist with the weather service in Upton.

Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, PSEG Long Island was reporting a 99.91% reliability rate with 25 outages.

Police said Saturday night that there were no major weather-related issues. There was a report of a tree down in the road at Magnolia Drive and Hemlock Street in Selden, and 34th Street in Lindenhurst was closed between Albany and New York avenues due to flooding.

The temperature on Long Island was expected to hit freezing during Saturday night, with a wind chill making it feel like 20 to 25 degrees as those wind gusts still could be a factor, though the peak should decline to no more than 21 mph, the weather service said.

Don’t despair if Sunday begins with overcast skies.

"Clouds mostly clear during the day Sunday, but expect the brisk northwest winds to continue into much of Sunday with gusts up to 25 mph as the gradient between the exiting coastal low and a weak high pressure system over Michigan remains steady," the weather service said.

And it will be chilly — a few degrees colder than normal. Sunday’s daytime high is expected to be 43 degrees. The nighttime low will be around 28.

Like Sunday, most of the coming week will be sunny.

Monday is expected to see a high near 40 degrees but the wind chill would make it feel like 20 to 30 degrees. Tuesday and Wednesday will see highs in the low 40s, and temperatures could go up to as high as 51 degrees Friday.

With John Asbury