Cold week ahead as high winds ease overnight after 60 mph gusts on Long Island

Gusts in excess of 60 mph buffeted some parts of Long Island Monday, but even lighter breezes predicted for this week will make subfreezing temperatures feel even colder, meteorologists said.

After the National Weather Service’s wind advisory expired at 6 p.m. Monday, wind gusts were anticipated to stay below 30 mph Tuesday and continue to die down through Wednesday, according to meteorologist Bryan Ramsey with the service’s Upton office.

The service reported a tree falling across Route 25 near Wading River Hollow Road in Middle Island while winds were gusting around 40 to 50 mph at around 6 p.m. Sunday, Ramsey said. Another tree was downed on Pine Aire Drive near Princess Avenue in Bay Shore Monday afternoon, according to a Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson.

More than 17,600 PSEG customers lost power from 7 a.m. Sunday through midday Monday, the utility company said in a news release. But that number came down steadily through the day.

As of 5:15 p.m. Monday, 80 outages continued to impact a total of 433 customers.

As of around 4:45 p.m. Monday a total of 344 flights heading to or departing from Kennedy Airport were delayed, and another 51 were canceled according to FlightAware, a flight tracking site. LaGuardia Airport experienced 578 flight delays and 142 cancellations.

Winds along the North Shore reached 60 mph in Bayville in Nassau County and 62 mph in Eatons Neck in Suffolk, according to weather service data. South Shore winds gusted upwards of 62 mph at Kennedy Airport and 58 mph at the Montauk Airport.

Temperatures dropped below freezing Monday and will remain there through Friday, according to Ramsey. Wind chills could reach single digits overnight Tuesday and the teens both Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

While a storm system the weather service has been tracking has “been trending farther and farther south,” Ramsey said a chance remains for snow to fall once again on Long Island on Thursday.

“Probably just under an inch for Nassau, and that will increase as you go east to the South Fork, where it could be more like 1.5 to 2 inches,” Ramsey added. He said snow is expected to begin “right around daybreak” Thursday and continue “through the morning and into the afternoon. … And after that, nothing but dry weather into the weekend.”

On Friday, Ramsey said high temperatures will climb back into the mid-30s and reach the upper 30s to low 40s by Monday.