Long Island weather: Rainy, warm and windy Veterans Day

Wednesday's Veterans Day likely will see downpours, with between 1 and 2 inches of rain possible — and autumn's fallen leaves may clog drains, creating some minor flooding, forecasters said.

It will still be a strikingly warm day, though temperatures should start cooling as soon as Thursday.

A daytime high of 67 degrees is forecast for Wednesday by the National Weather Service’s Islip office, but Thursday could be around 10 degrees cooler.

The rain may continue off and on until Saturday, when the sun should reappear, the weather service said.

Showers may revisit Long Island on Sunday and Monday, making Tuesday the next clear day.

Rain and fall-like temps on the way

Before that, Wednesday’s rain can be pinned on what the weather service calls a slow-moving cold front that will arrive from the west.

"This will produce a swath of moderate to heavy rain showers overspreading western portions of the region late this afternoon (into) this evening," the weather service said.

Rain coats had better be lightweight.

"Ahead of this, temps today will continue to run 15-20 degrees above normal...with highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s, and unseasonably high dewpoints in the 60s," the weather service said.

And umbrellas may be blown inside out.

"Winds could get a bit gusty for city/coast late morning into this afternoon with daytime mixing, with gusts 20-25mph," the weather service said.

Nighttime drivers should be on the lookout for spots of fog from about 9 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday, the weather service warned.

Thursday should mark the start of more usual thermometer readings for autumn, with the temperature expected to fall to the mid-50s by the evening.

"Temps will remain above seasonable by several degrees on Thursday, then returning to more seasonable levels on Friday with onshore flow," the weather service said.

The odds of rain Friday are 50% and a daytime high of 57 degrees is anticipated.

Saturday’s sunny skies will not, however, be enough to raise temperatures above 52 degrees during the day, the weather service said.

There is a 40% chance of showers after noon Sunday, the weather service said. The high is expected to be near 57 degrees.

There is a 30% chance of showers on Monday, when the high should rise to 60 degrees. Tuesday’s weather should be clear, but 10 degrees cooler.

No record set

Islip missed setting a record for four days of November temperatures of at least 70 degrees on Tuesday, when the high was one degree short at 69 during the day, weather service meteorologist James Connolly said. As a result, the record for three days in a row of at least 70 degrees in November in Islip still stands.

On the storm watch front, a hurricane watch was issued for southwestern Florida as Tropical Storm Eta draws near. Its track takes it across the northern Florida peninsula on Thursday, threatening the area with life-threatening storm surges and intense rain, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. And then the storm should bend out to the Atlantic Ocean.

And more storms are gobbling up the Greek alphabet the forecasters switched to using because the 21 storms seen by mid-September had used up their alphabetical list.

A tropical wave is forming in the Caribbean that could drench the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and parts of Hispaniola — which includes the Dominican Republic and Haiti — over the next two days.

In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Theta is about 740 miles southwest of the Azores and should keep heading east northeast during the same period.