Long Island weather: It’s back to low 40s after 2-day warm up

Long Islanders will need to prepare for quite a shift weather-wise, as Thursday and Friday are expected to warm up to the low 40s, forecasters say.

It’s not that the low 40s are unusual this time of year: 42 degrees is the normal high for both days at Long Island MacArthur Airport.

It’s that both Tuesday and Wednesday saw temperatures go unusually high — into the 60s, with Tuesday’s 64 degrees the record for the day at the airport, according to the National Weather Service.

Longer than expected cloud cover Wednesday meant the airport warmed up to just 60 degrees, falling short of the day’s record. That was as Central Park and LaGuardia Airport, which both soared to 78 degrees, set records for the month of February. (Records are preliminary, pending verification.)

Both Thursday and Friday bring chances of rain, with Thursday’s starting as early as 6 a.m., but more likely 9 or 10 a.m. said Faye Morrone, weather service meteorologist in Upton.

Look for rain to be widespread but generally light, she said, and with temperatures dipping to around the freezing mark by midafternoon, there’s potential for a period of sleet mixed with rain, probably in areas of Suffolk County. That was as of the late Wednesday afternoon forecast.

Friday’s temperatures were not expected to cool down to the freezing mark, so the precipitation forecast called for rain.