Long Island weather: Clear skies on the Thanksgiving menu

Plan for clear skies from through Thanksgiving — and after a likely soggy Friday, at least Saturday will be sunny, the National Weather Service said.

The temperature Wednesday will climb to about 51 degrees, dipping to 35 in the evening.

Daytime temperatures will be clustered around the 50s for most of the next seven days, with nighttime thermometers sinking down toward freezing. In the Pine Barrens, lows in the 20s are possible Thursday night.

And those stiff nighttime breezes will calm, with gusts topping out at 20 mph, as a cloud-banishing high pressure system settles in to the south of the New York metropolitan region, the weather service said.

“High pressure remains in control on Wednesday through Thanksgiving Day leading to dry conditions,” the weather service said.

After a sunny Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, the center of that high pressure system “heads east” that night, it said.

And then, a bit of a dry/damp cycle begins.

There is a 70% chance of rain after 1 p.m. Friday, due to a rain-creating low pressure system partly originating in Texas that will travel to the tri-state area.

By Friday night, the downpour odds drop to 40%, as “a northern stream shortwave trough passes overhead sometime late Friday through Friday night, as well as an associated cold front,” the weather service said.

Shortwaves are disturbances in the upper atmosphere that can raise air ahead of them. Similarly, cold fronts can trigger rain by lifting warm air in front of them.

Saturday should be mostly sunny, with a mild daytime high of 55 degrees.

Rainfall odds that night, however, are 40% and they rise to 50% on Sunday before easing to 30% that night.

“Low pressure likely passes right over or near the area on Sunday, bringing likely an all rain event,” the weather service said.

Monday will start the work week off with sunshine, thanks to another high pressure system.