Long Island weather: Cold weather for the better part of Thanksgiving week 

The workweek’s starting out dry and mild, but an arctic air mass is dropping in time for Thanksgiving Day, which could be delivering record-cold temperatures, forecasters say.

And, yes, it’s a “roller coaster ride this week for temperatures,” says Rich Hoffman, a News 12 Long Island meteorologist.

Look for rain to arrive Tuesday morning, giving way to mostly cloudy skies, the weather service said. Highs in the upper 40s are expected.

Temperatures then drop to the upper 20s to low 30s for early morning Wednesday and warm up to the low 40s as sunshine rules the day, making for a chilly but dry preholiday travel day. 

It’s Wednesday evening that sees the arrival of arctic air, said Carlie Buccola, a weather service meteorologist in Upton. 

So, in addition to parades, football games and tables of food, Thanksgiving Day could well be bringing record cold — early morning lows in the upper teens or low 20s, with the afternoon warming up only to the high 20s or so, the weather service said.

The vital statistics for the day at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma: A high of 51 degrees and a low of 35 degrees are considered normal for Nov. 22.

As for records:

The record high for the day certainly isn’t at risk — that was a toasty 64 degrees, set in 1973.

However, the coolest high temperature is — in 2008 the day warmed up to only 31 degrees, with a high this year of 28 degrees expected at the airport, based on the Monday morning forecast.

The record low for the day is 20 degrees, set in 1987, with 18 degrees in this year’s forecast.