Long Island weather: Temperatures dropping into the teens

Donna Plunkett, left, of Huntington, and her daughter Becca, search for sand dollars on a brisk Sunday outing, Jan. 3, 2016, at Robert Moses State Park. Already chilly temperatures are expected to plunge in the early part of the week. Credit: James Carbone
December’s record-breaking warmth on Long Island will become just another fond memory of 2015 as the New Year is bringing frosty temperatures, forecasters said Sunday.
“Winter is finally here – there’ll be a two-day punch,” News 12 Long Island meteorologist Matt Hammer said of Monday and Tuesday. “There’s a big arctic blast coming on Monday that’s going to make it feel like the 20s [for highs] with the northwest winds.”
Hammer said Tuesday will bring the coldest conditions: “We could have a wind chill in the single digits.”
Normal highs for this time of year are in the upper 30s but an arctic air mass from Canada will put Long Island in the deep freeze, said Faye Barthold of the National Weather Service.
“It starts coming in overnight,” Barthold said of Sunday night into Monday. “We get a bit colder, and highs will top out at freezing – 32 degrees.” Lows Monday night will be around a frigid 15, Barthold said. “Tuesday will be continued cold with highs right around 30.
“Out through the next week Monday and Tuesday will definitely be the coldest, and we won’t see any 60s (this week), that’s for sure,” Barthold said.
But though it will be cold the new bite in the air won’t set any records, Barthold said. She said the record for Monday was zero degrees set in 2014 and the record for Tuesday was 10 degrees set in 1988.
Giro Prianti, owner of Prianti Farms Inc. in Dix Hills, said in a phone interview Sunday that his fire wood sales are starting to heat up.
“It’s been very slow up until now,” Prianti said. “There’s been a bit of an uptick in sales and the phone seems to be ringing a bit more.”
According to the weather service, in December the monthly average of 48.5 degrees was 12.7 degrees above normal. There were a record nine days of temperatures in the 60s at Long Island MacArthur Airport, topping the previous record of six set in December 1998; and on Christmas Eve, the high of 64 was 27 degrees above normal.
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