St. Patrick's Day weather: Not much snow but plenty of cold

The official start to spring begins around lunchtime Thursday, but it did not feel like that on St. Patrick's Day, with average temperatures running about 15 degrees below normal.

However, after Monday's blast of cold, the march toward spring brings "a slow progression upward," said Tim Morrin, National Weather Service meteorologist based in Upton.

The forecast high for Monday is 33 degrees at Long Island MacArthur Airport, where 47 is the average for the day, he said. Tuesday's high is expected to be 37; Wednesday's, 45; and Thursday's, 51, he said.

The only chance for precipitation is Wednesday night, he said, with a 6 in 10 likelihood of showers -- that would be rain showers, as "the atmosphere is too warm to support snow."

In a nutshell, he said, the week is looking to be "mostly dry, with a little wrinkle midweek," and temperatures slowly moving up to average.

That's following a dusting of snow Monday morning at Kennedy Airport as a snow band ever so briefly "kissed" the South Shore of Long Island, according to the National Weather Service.