Long Island weather: Rain Saturday, Sunday; local events to be impacted

Sun-filled skies Thursday and Friday could give way to yet another rain-filled weekend, with forecasters at the National Weather Service predicting rain is possible Saturday on Long Island — with a chance of showers and rain continuing through Sunday.

Records show that after raining for some portion of all four weekends in August, there was a brief hiatus for the first three weekends in September.

But it has rained each of the past three weekends and the weather service said there is a 50% chance of rain Saturday, mainly after 2 p.m.

The chance of precipitation will rise to 70% Saturday night, and then the chance of precipitation will range from 30% to 40% Sunday through Tuesday before partly sunny skies return on Wednesday.

Rainfall Saturday and Sunday could impact a number of outdoor events. 

The big one, Oyster Fest on the Oyster Bay waterfront, confirmed Thursday they are a go for this weekend, rain or shine.

One early casualty of the forecast weekend weather was the Patchogue Fall Festival, which announced it was rescheduling from Saturday to Oct. 28th. 

And organizers of a planned daylong poetry festival, The Word, which features Nassau County Poet Laureate Paula Curci, poetry readings, music, open mic and workshops, announced it would wait until 3 p.m. Friday to announce whether it would postpone the Saturday event, scheduled for Schoolhouse Green at 65 Foxhurst Road in Oceanside. The event has a rain date of Sunday.

But Curci said in an email Thursday the pending forecast could force the event to not only postpone the scheduled date — but also the rainout date.

Another early victim of the forecast is Saturday's scheduled community fall market at the Baldwin LIRR station. That has been postponed to Oct. 21, organizers announced Thursday.

The coming nasty weather figures to take the mild, late-summer weather we have had this week — including those high-60s, low-to-mid 70s temperatures — and drive them into the ground, with highs around 60 degrees called for from Saturday through Monday.

At 2:56 p.m. on Thursday, the temperature at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma reached 70 degrees.

Just before 7 p.m. Thursday, the temperature at the airport was down to 60 degrees with a few clouds overhead, the weather service said. The humidity was at 78% with a 3 mph southwest wind.

Sunshine-filled skies are on tap for Friday, the weather service said, though the daytime high will be a more-autumnal 65 degrees. A northwest wind of 10 mph is expected.

Clouds will begin to build overnight Friday into Saturday, possibly bringing rain Saturday afternoon, forecasters said.

There were no watches, warnings or alerts in effect Thursday.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”