Long Island forecast: Near-record high temperatures Saturday

Showers are expected on Long Island on Saturday, mainly before 10 a.m., with the high temperature for the day rising to about 61 degrees.

The normal high for the date in Islip is 46 while the record high was 65 in 1971.

The National Weather Service said the chance of precipitation is 60% on a mostly cloudy day which will see a south wind increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon.

More shores are expected Saturday night, mainly before 1 a.m., with a low temperature of around 40. Winds could gust as high as 44 mph and the chance of precipitation is 100%.

Once past Saturday, no rain appears in the weather service's forecast all the way through Friday.

Look for temperatures to stick to the upper 40s to low 50s during the days — except for another possible record-breaking day on Friday, when the high is officially predicted to hit 55.

During the nights, thermometers will not even descend to freezing, instead hovering in the upper 30s and low 40s.

Don’t be disheartened by any early morning clouds on Sunday. They should clear off by midmorning — and sunshine should dominate the skies until Thursday, when there could be an overcast that departs in time for a mostly sunny Friday.

Winds powered by two weather systems

Saturday’s powerful breezes triggering gale warnings for ocean waters result from the combination of two systems, the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center said Friday.

They are a rain-creating low pressure system high in the atmosphere traveling northeast across the Great Lakes, and a cold front down by the Earth’s surface, also moving east across the central Appalachians.

A line of squalls is expected to develop ahead of that cold front. Those storms should weaken by the early to mid-evening as the upper level low pressure system reaches southern Quebec, the prediction center said.

The fair weather expected after Saturday will spring from a sky-clearing high pressure system forming over the nation’s midsection, carried by westerly winds, which will slowly head toward the East Coast.