Chances for rain last through Saturday, NWS says, as LI's drought status elevates to 'severe'

Friday will bring more rain to Long Island, possibly lasting into Saturday, adding to rainfall that was, so far, the most seen in the region during a historically dry fall. 

Overnight through 4 p.m. Thursday, 1.04 inches of rain fell at Islip, said meteorologist John Murray with the National Weather Service's Upton office.

Murray forecast the rain will "lull" overnight into Friday morning but "pick up again during the afternoon hours ... and continue into Friday night."

The chances for rain will not "totally drop off" until Saturday night, Murray said, by which point some areas of Long Island may have collected up to 2 inches of rain. This predicted amount, combined with the 0.59 inches that fell since Sept. 1, would keep this meteorological fall on track to beat out 1965, when Islip collected 3.31 inches of rain, as Long Island's driest on record.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, which reports drought conditions across the United States, previously deemed Long Island to be in moderate drought status, with western Nassau County and New York City to be in severe drought status. But Thursday, it elevated all of Long Island to severe drought status. 

This current rainstorm is "likely not going to remove us totally from the drought," Murray said. "But it should help somewhat." 

It will take more than these rains to make up for the region's depleted water supply. New York City's water supply would need about 8 inches of rain to reach normal levels, officials said at a news conference Monday.

Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the city's Department of Environmental Protection, said Monday the city's vast upstate reservoir system is at 60% of capacity. Normally, those reservoirs are nearly 80% filled at this time of year, Aggarwala said.

Before this week, only trace amounts of precipitation had been recorded on Long Island since August, according to weather service records for Islip.

With John Valenti