LI weather: Rain could come late on July 4 but Monday should be sunny
Two people with umbrellas pay a parking meter in Port Jefferson on Saturday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
With no rain forecast, Monday is probably a better day to throw a barbecue if deciding between Sunday and Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Upton.
But, as NWS meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki joked Saturday: "Isn't anytime a good time to barbecue?"
Still uncertain? Consider this: There's a 20% chance of showers Sunday — more likely in the afternoon, according to Ciemnecki.
It's forecast to be 75 degrees on Sunday, and sunny yet cool with a daytime high of about 81 on Monday, the weather service predicted.
Tuesday's weather will be warmer and could signal the start of at least a short heat wave. More downpours also are expected later in the week, partly depending on the path taken by Elsa, now weakening from a hurricane to a tropical storm.
Elsa, swirling about 40 miles south of a small island called Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and about 350 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, at 11 a.m. Saturday, "is expected to pass near or over southwestern Haiti, Cuba, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico or the Florida peninsula during the next three days or so," the National Hurricane Center advised. "After that, the system is likely to cross portions of the southeastern United States on its way into the Atlantic."
The storm could intensify over the Gulf of Mexico, and hurricane warnings remain for parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, it added.
In the rest of the nation, the Northwest and western states will "continue to bake" over the holiday weekend, with excessive-heat warnings and advisories issued once again, though the highs will not be quite as intense as the past week, according to the weather service's Weather Prediction Center.
Moderate to possibly "excessive" rainfall could stretch from northern Florida to eastern Texas, the prediction center said.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
