Snow fooling, there's more in the forecast

It may not compare to the winter George Washington and his troops faced at Valley Forge, but Long Islanders spent Presidents Day dealing with another snowstorm in the string of snowstorms this winter.

And forecasters suggested the Island could get more Monday night into early Tuesday.

The snow began overnight and by the time it stopped midday Monday, it had created commuter havoc even though the holiday rush hour was light.

The deepest snow was in Centereach and Sound Beach, which each got 4.8 inches, the National Weather Service reported. Garden City led Nassau County with 3.2 inches.

None of it was quite as bad as the the more than seven inches that fell to the north, south and west of the Island. But it was significant enough to create treacherous road conditions during the morning rush hour, causing mostly minor fender-benders, police said. Some of the crashes forced brief road closures. In one accident, a Jeep overturned at Exit 49 on the Long Island Expressway, Route 110 in Melville.

The weather service extended its winter weather advisory for eastern Suffolk until 4 p.m. And forecasters suggested Nassau, Suffolk and New York City could see more snow overnight Monday into Tuesday - most of it between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m.

That, forecasters said, could create messy conditions for the morning commute Tuesday.

SEE PHOTOSSnowstorms that buried LI over the past 100-plus years

The hardest-hit areas on Long Island were in Suffolk, all of which got at least 4 inches of snow. Port Jefferson got 4.6 inches, Centerport, Coram, East Northport and Stony Brook got 4.5, followed by Medford and Northport, each with 4.2 inches and Manorville with 4.inches of snow.

In Nassau, Garden City, Plainview, Levittown and Bellerose all got at least 3 inches.

Early morning traffic was light due to the holiday, and plows and salt trucks were out on the Long Island Expressway in Suffolk County around 5:30 a.m.

The high temperature Monday was expected to be in the mid-30s with winds of about 10 to 15 mph Monday afternoon, and gusts of about 25 mph possible on eastern Long Island.

That's a far cry from Saturday, when 60-mph gusts knocked trees into roads and power lines, cutting power to nearly 7,000 Long Island Power Authority customers at one point. By Sunday evening, however, all but three customers affected by the wind-related outages had power restored, according to LIPA.

If you're tired of wind and snow, take heart: The first day of spring is four weeks away, even if those 50-degree temperatures last week already seem like a distant memory.

With Will Van Sant and Paul LaRocco.