Long Island weather: Arctic air departs, but slow snow melt ahead as temps rise moderately

Baby, it’s still cold outside.

After more than two weeks of deep-freezing temperatures, Long Island could see a slight warmup, but not much relief in melting a foot of frozen snow blanketing yards and piles of ice chunks along the sides of streets.

The forecast for the coming week shows temperatures reaching into the upper 30s, a tepid improvement compared to single digits last weekend and temperatures below normal all winter.

"It’s going to feel like going from the freezer into the fridge," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Goodman.

The duration of freezing temperatures since Jan. 23, accompanied by an arctic blast of snow, has been the longest period since about the 1970s, according to the weather service.

Temperatures were between 2 to 3 degrees below normal in December and January, but during the first eight days of February, temperatures were 12 degrees below normal, Goodman said. 

This weekend’s cold snap came straight from the North Pole, Goodman said. The cold stretch broke a 31-year-old record for a high of 17 degrees on Sunday and also set a record low of zero on Jan. 31. Wind chills this past weekend also dropped to minus 15 to minus 20 degrees across Long Island.

Since Jan. 24, Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma only saw one day reach highs above freezing, on Friday, when it reached 34 degrees, said NewsdayTV meteorologist Bill Korbel. But on each of those nights, the temperatures dropped below 20 degrees, Korbel said.

Temperatures could inch this week closer to the average temperature of 40 degrees as jet streams move across the country for more normal temperatures, compared to the arctic cold blast.

"It’s been a wicked cold snap, but the pattern is changing," Korbel said. "Next week could see a few days sneak into the 40s," Korbel said. "We might turn the corner. It’s going to feel a lot better and temperatures in the mid to upper-30s may not feel so bad."

This week’s forecast calls for high temperatures in the mid-30s, with a high near 40 on Wednesday. Overnight lows will be in the low 20s to low 30s with a low of about 34 degrees Tuesday night. There is a slight chance of snow mixed with rainafter 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the weather service.

Forecasters said the chance of snow and rain this week and during the Presidents Day weekend should bring little to no accumulation.

The slight warmup may do little to melt the 2-week-old snow and the short-lived melt will freeze overnight.

"We don’t get much snow melt until we’re breaking 40 degrees consistently. It’s going to be a slow process and the coating of sleet on top is not going to help very much," Goodman said. "We need a warm stretch to really start melting this."