Possible damp days this week on Long Island would end dry spell 

Long Island may see showers this week, potentially ending a more than two-week dry spell, meteorologists said.

The National Weather Service said a frontal system bringing overcast skies to the Island this week may also bring a 30% chance of rain Wednesday night and a 40% chance throughout Thursday before another predicted dry Friday and weekend.

Long Island is not currently facing a drought, but if the region’s several-week dry spell "continues though into October, then that would start to become a drought of some sorts," meteorologist Jay Engle with the National Weather Service’s Upton office said Tuesday afternoon. He added since "we had such a wet period" in August, "that bought us some time."

The island will not see "a ton of rain," over the next few days, Engle said. "Any rain helps, but if it’s just a couple of tenths of an inch, it’s not going to really put a dent in anything."

The likely culprit causing Long Island’s dry spell, Engle said, is "a high pressure" that has been "anchored to our north and north east for a long period," thus "blocking storm systems from coming up from the west and southwest."

The last measurable amount of rain — 0.03 inches — fell on Sept. 7.

Temperatures on Long Island will remain in the upper 60s on Wednesday, and will increase on Thursday and Friday with highs in the upper 70s. Despite clouds Friday, conditions should stay dry through the weekend, as highs cool back down to the lower 70s.

Meanwhile, Long Island will be spared from Tropical Storm Helene but the storm is expected to intensify as it heads for Florida. Helene is expected to be near hurricane strength once it reaches the Caribbean Sea early Wednesday, and will make landfall at the Florida panhandle Thursday night, meteorologists said.

The weather service forecasts the storm will travel north through Georgia and parts of Alabama. By Friday morning, it is expected to move east through the Tennessee Valley region and through Kentucky.

But the rain that may fall on Long Island later this week is not related to Helene.

"We're talking about two totally separate systems," National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki said. "This is not connected to this tropical system at all."