Sloppy mess left over from snowfall expected to create icy conditions Wednesday

Falling temperatures and slick, icy conditions overnight across Long Island could make the Wednesday morning commute a challenge, according to the latest forecast.

By late Tuesday, the temperature stood at 25 degrees and was forecast to fall into the high teens overnight with a wind chill making it feel closer to between 10 and 15, according to the National Weather Service.

John Cristanello, a meteorologist with the weather service's Upton office, said Tuesday evening that with temperatures staying below freezing, any roadway surfaces that have not yet been treated could become icy and slippery overnight.

“It just depends on how well it was salted,” he said. “So, wherever there is standing water and wherever it has not been treated, it could get icy.”

The first significant snowfall of the season Monday night left anywhere from 1 to 3 inches throughout Long Island.

But what began Tuesday morning as the appearance of a somewhat belated winter wonderland, with trees coated in light snow, eventually became a sloppy mess as the thermometer climbed to just above freezing and snow turned to rain, icing up roads.

Late Tuesday, schools and school districts from one end of Suffolk County to the other had announced delayed openings Wednesday, most for two hours, with at least one closing.

The rest of the week will remain very cold, with highs at the freezing mark or well below through Sunday, forecasters said. Skies will gradually clear overnight with plenty of sunshine Wednesday. And even with bright sunshine in the forecast, Long Island's deep freeze will continue Wednesday with a high of 26 and a low in the evening of 18.

More snow is predicted for Thursday night into Friday. 

There's a 30% chance of snow Thursday evening, climbing to 60% Friday, the weather service said.

In an update late Tuesday afternoon, the weather service said there's between a 10 and 30% chance of more than 3 inches of snow but “the track and intensity of an elongated area of low pressure tracking south of the region Friday through Friday Night will be critical to the location and duration of light snow banding. More clarity is expected over the next 36 hrs.”

The cold snap came after Robert Heckle, a Port Jefferson native who now lives in Pennsylvania, and his wife, Lori, originally from Centereach, drove to the Island on Friday to visit his sister.

The couple had planned to take the 9:49 a.m. Long Island Rail Road train from Port Jefferson Station to Manhattan on Monday for a doctor’s appointment. They were accompanied by Heckle’s sister, Kathy Maniscalco.

“We were going to stay in the city early like last night. But then they said it would be like 1 to 3 inches, so we said how bad can it be,” Maniscalco said. “But we came here a little bit earlier just to be safe."

Despite roads being a “little slushy” on the drive to the train station, the streets seemed “pretty fine” otherwise, she said.

“If the snow bothers you, or the rain, it's winter,” said Maniscalco. “We should just enjoy the weather as it is.”