Temps will plunge as cold front sweeps through, bringing rain, strong winds

A sudden cold front will send the mercury down Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain, and leaving wind chills in its wake of between 15 to 20 degrees.

The National Weather Service has extended its wind advisory to include the entire metropolitan area, with heavy winds predicted, gusting between 45 to 50 mph between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. when the cold front comes through. Rain, totaling an inch or more, is expected intermittently throughout the day.

“We're going to see this pattern of on and off showers pretty much throughout the day today until the front comes in tonight and clears it all out,” said Bryan Ramsey, meteorologist at the weather service in Upton. Thunderstorms are possible too.

The wind advisory, which was in place at 7 a.m., will be effect into Thursday morning. It now covers Nassau and Suffolk counties, New York City and its northern suburbs, and southern Connecticut. The weather service said the strong winds could blow down trees and power lines. Power outages are possible.

Temperatures are expected to drop into subfreezing digits late Wednesday into early Thursday and could result in icy patches from leftover puddles, Ramsey said.

“This time of year it's nothing out of the norm to see the subfreezing temperatures,” he said. “The concern of course will be the rain that we're going to have today and how quickly it freezes.”

Thursday, the sun should come back out but the high will just be 37, going down to 25 at night with wind chills of between 20 and 25 degrees. Then, a gradual warmup starts with a high of 44 on Friday with abundant sunshine and through the 50s during the weekend.

But Saturday, Sunday and Monday are forecast to be cloudy with chances for rain, the weather service said.