Long Island weather forecast: Snow expected Tuesday as 2 more storms loom

After waking up to snow on Super Bowl Sunday, Long Islanders may have to shovel themselves out again on Wednesday and Thursday mornings as a pair of storms are forecast to hit the region.

A storm system will pass to the south of Long Island Tuesday evening, bringing with it 2 to 3 inches of snow, according to John Cristantello, a National Weather Service meteorologist with the weather service's Upton office. The snow is expected to start falling Tuesday between 7 and 10 p.m. and will probably end by daybreak Wednesday, he added.

The South Shore will probably see more snow than northern hamlets, according to a weather service briefing issued Monday afternoon, which forecast more than 2½ inches for Westhampton and Islip, but close to 2 inches for Montauk and mid-island areas like Syosset.

Yet another storm system will pass over Long Island on Wednesday, according the Cristantello. He said Monday afternoon that it will probably last longer into the following day, though he said forecasting this event is "a little more complicated."

"It can start in the afternoon, but it's more likely starting at night again on Wednesday," the meteorologist said. He predicted it would end "most likely by around noon on Thursday."

While the Tuesday evening storm will consist of snow, the precipitation that falls late Wednesday will begin as snow, but then change to sleet overnight and probably end as rain on Thursday, according to Cristantello.

But before that changeover, an average of 1 inch of fresh snow will likely fall across Long Island.

High temperatures will climb from the mid- to upper-30s on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then reach above 40 on Thursday, the weather service forecast.

Friday — Valentine's Day — should remain dry with high temperatures in the mid-30s. But this will be a brief reprieve, as the weather service forecasts more precipitation Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

"It could start out as a mixture of rain and snow, but it probably won't be long before it switches over to rain," Cristantello said. "It's mainly a rain event."