October storm brings LI freezing rain, snow

The National Weather service issued a winter weather advisory this afternoon for Long Island and issued a storm warning for all five New York City boroughs.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office says more than 261,000 customers are without power statewide, according to The Associated Press. More than 5,600 on Long Island have reported outages, according to the LIPA website.

Freezing rain and snow began falling across the Island shortly after noon, but only trace amounts of powder were sticking. Forecasters said that eventually, 2 to 3 inches might accumulate overnight in Suffolk County, 6 to 8 inches in Nassau County and Queens. Snow was more likely to fall in larger amounts the farther west it landed.

In parts of Manhattan, light snow had begun to accumulate by early afternoon.

Measurable snowfall has never fallen in October in Islip, where the National Weather Service has kept records since 1984. The earliest snowfall recorded there was on Nov. 6, 1987, when a trace of snow was measured.

A high wind warning has been issued for Nassau and Suffolk counties as well as southeast Connecticut, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph expected. Gusts could reach 60 mph.

With Long Island getting mostly rain, the storm will resemble "a good old-fashioned nor'easter," said Mike Layer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Upton.

The U.S. Coast Guard station in Montauk issued an advisory for people to secure any boats in the water and urged caution for those who might be in boats today, Petty Officer Ryan Clendenen said.

"Halloween marks winter out here," Clendenen said. "It's nothing too new for us. It's pretty easy for the people in Montauk to prepare for this."

Most of the recreational boats and smaller yachts are already out of the water, but commercial fishermen are likely to still go out in high winds, he said.

The weather was blamed for four-hour delays for arriving flights at Kennedy Airport. Weather also caused 30-minute delays for arriving flights at Newark and LaGuardia airports.

Scattered delays and a few cancellations were reported at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. MacArthur officials said passengers should call their airlines for updates. 

Across the Island, the storm caused event cancellations, including the annual Pumpkin Fling in Yaphank. Teams of students and adults had been preparing to build catapults or other propulsion devices to launch pumpkins in a field. Band Day at Baldwin High School was also scrapped.

At noon Saturday, the Long Island Power Authority reported minor outages in Hempstead and Brookhaven, both of which were expected to be restored by afternoon.

"We've been preparing for the storm," LIPA spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter said. "We have additional staffing levels of linemen and tree-trimming crews."

The Long Island Rail Road reported no weather-related service changes and was not yet clearing snow off the tracks, spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said Saturday afternoon.

"If need be, they [workers] will be out clearing platforms and staircases, but that hasn't been necessary as of yet," Anders said.

LIRR customers should check for services changes throughout the day before heading out, she added.

Towns such as Oyster Bay and Hempstead have spent the past few days preparing for an early snowstorm.

"This is really the first call of the winter season," Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto said. "We're on the ready and very well-coordinated right now."

Emergency crews in the town have been testing heavy equipment, preparing for downed trees. Crews have also loaded trucks with salt and sand.

Town employees have also been clearing leaves from storm drains, and Venditto said extra workers are on call should the town need to put plows on the streets.

Hempstead put 200 employees on call to salt roads if necessary. The town secured 40,000 tons of salt and 40 salt trucks in advance of the storm.

Long Islanders bemoaned the early arrival of wintry weather.

It was enough to make Jim McKay, 51, of Northport, consider moving somewhere warmer.

"It's too soon," he said outside the Huntington Home Depot store. "You have to crank up the heat, which is going to be expensive. I think about relocating more and more the older I get."

Inside the store, Kurt Dietrich, 54, of Huntington, was already shopping for Christmas.

"It is what it is," he said. "I'm just going to hope it melts and goes away."

If snow does accumulate on Long Island, it could set a record.

The record for Manhattan fell early in the day. In the past 135 years, measurable snow has fallen in the city in October only three times. The most snow to have fallen in the city was less than an inch, a mark set in Central Park in 1925. As of 2 p.m., 1.25 inches had fallen there, the weather service said.

Most of Saturday's snow was forecast to fall to the west of Long Island. As much as a foot of powder could accumulate in portions of Pennsylvania and the interior regions of New York and Massachusetts, the Weather Service said.

October snowfall records could be set in parts of southern New England, especially at higher elevations, Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said. The October record for southern New England is 7.5 inches in Worcester in 1979.

Likely to see the most snow will be the Massachusetts Berkshires, the Litchfield Hills in northwestern Connecticut, southwestern New Hampshire and the southern Green Mountains. In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned residents that they could lose power because of the anticipated wet, heavy snow.

More than 6 inches of snow could accumulate in parts of Maine on Saturday. Parts of southern Vermont could receive more than a foot of wet snow Saturday into Sunday.

Communities inland will get hit hardest by the storm. Relatively warm water temperatures along the Atlantic seaboard could keep the snowfall totals much lower along the coast and in cities such as Boston, Simpson said. Temperatures should return to the mid-50s by midweek.

In Pennsylvania, 6 to 10 inches could fall at higher elevations, including the Laurel Highlands in the southwestern part of the state and the Pocono Mountains in the northeast. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh could see a coating.

LaCorte said the last major widespread snowstorm to hit Pennsylvania this early was in 1972.

In New England, the first measurable snow usually falls in early December, and normal highs for late October are in the mid-50s.

With Kery Murakami and The Associated Press