Long Island weather: Cooler temperatures move in along with unsettled weather, chances for rain

Following the first heat wave of the summer, Long Island cooled down Thursday with highs in the mid to upper 70s, the National Weather Service said. 

Scattered showers hit the region Wednesday night into Thursday morning as a cold front gradually shifted south, bringing relief after three days of extreme heat, service meteorologist Matt Wunsch said.

The service issued a coastal flood advisory Wednesday night into Thursday for southern Nassau and eastern Suffolk due to the new moon.

"Astronomical tides are kind of just higher during new moon and full moon," Wunsch said. "Water levels ... might hit minor flood stage, but not really get much higher than the benchmark of minor coastal flooding."

Temperatures will drop even more on Friday due to the cold front, with highs in the upper 60s to 70s — about 10 degrees below average.

"Really quite a dramatic drop from the past few days that we’ve had," Wunsch said.

The service is calling for a chance of showers over the next several days. 

"It won’t be necessarily a washout," Wunsch said. 

Saturday will see highs in average temperatures of upper 70s for most of Long Island. The East End will see highs in the mid 70s while areas closer to New York City will have highs near 80.

Wunsch said that showers will mostly move offshore by Sunday, with highs in the upper 70s.

This week’s heat wave broke several records.

On Tuesday, the service recorded 101 degrees in Islip, where the previous record was 96 degrees. Wednesday’s high of 98 degrees at Islip beat its previous record of 92 degrees.