Long Island weather: Rainy day, as high surf closes some beaches to swimming

Off and on rain marked the day Thursday, although Long Island escaped the heavier rains in areas west, and a slew of mostly sunny days are on the way, forecasters said.

No flood watch was issued for Long Island Thursday, partly because the rain was not falling at the unusually rapid rates that marked the remnants of Ida last week.

Tropical Depression Mindy was still off the coast of Georgia as of Thursday and while Hurricane Larry won't get near the region, its outer edges are influencing coastal waters in the form of dangerous rip currents on Atlantic-facing beaches.

As a result, swimming is currently prohibited at Jones Beach, Robert Moses, and Hither Hills state parks due to rough surf, according to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Friday on Long Island, meanwhile, should see a return to pleasant late-summer weather, with sunshine and a northwest breeze of no more than 13 mph predicted.

The breeze should help lower the humidity.

"A drier air mass will build in with dew points in the 50s by the afternoon," the weather service said. "Skies will clear early in the morning and a sunny day can be expected."

Dew points measure how cold the air must be for vapors to condense. Dew points in the 50s are viewed as fairly comfortable, while above 60 or so the air starts feeling muggy and around 70 is considered tropical.

Sunshine is predicted through the weekend and into Wednesday, the weather service said. Still, there may be a few sprinkles.

Though a cold front swings down from the northwest on Sunday, a cloud-clearing high pressure system developing in New England may send that system to the southwest on Monday, before it returns as a warm front on Tuesday, the weather service said.

"It`s not until Monday afternoon that we might see a passing shower in association with this frontal boundary," the weather service said. "And with the warm front passing through Tuesday there will be a chance to slight chance of showers and thunderstorms."