Long Island weather: Sunny today, then rain moves in tonight
Todd Kettler, of Saint James, leaves Borella Farmstand in Saint James with a couple of hanging plants on Saturday morning. Credit: Joseph Sperber
Saturday could be the last sunny day on Long Island for nearly a week as showers are expected to sweep the region by nightfall, according to the National Weather Service.
Saturday will be in the upper 70s with clear skies until the evening. Rain is expected to start around dinner time and continue into the night, when the temperature will drop into the mid-50s, according to weather service meteorologist Dominic Ramunni.
"A warm start to the weekend. We’re already starting to see temperatures quickly rise here, post-sunrise," Ramunni told Newsday.
Ramunni said "there’s a threat for severe thunderstorms" near New York City on Saturday night and that "it wouldn’t be a shock if a strong thunderstorm made it onto the Island."
Rainfall is expected to continue into Sunday, when the high temperature will be in the upper 60s. Those showers are expected to continue in bursts into early next week, Ramunni said.
"We’re looking at a pretty unsettled pattern the next few days … We’ll see continued rounds of rain through at least Tuesday," he said. "It won’t be raining continuously, but there will be periods of showers."
Ramunni said "the threat for flooding right now doesn’t look particularly high" despite the persistent rainfall. Flash floods are unlikely because the showers will be spread out over multiple days, but "nuisance" flooding is possible.
"If we do get some more moderate to heavy rainfall over a few hours, certainly the more typical ... urban drainage flooding is possible," he said. "All of this rain is going to be falling over several days as opposed to a several-hour period, which [will] help mitigate that flood threat."
The next "best chance" of dry weather will be Wednesday, when the odds of showers are 40% and temperatures will hit 70 degrees.
But Ramunni said "going into Thursday and Friday, there’s a much better chance of drier conditions starting to settle in."
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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