Clear skies and calm winds led to frigid temperatures across Nassau and Suffolk this morning. While most locations sat in the 20s, a few spots in the Pine Barrens fell into the teens!
Sunshine this morning will give way to clouds as a disturbance to our south intensifies offshore. The center of low pressure will be way out to sea, but a trough extending back to the northwest will bring a few inches of snow to parts of the Jersey Shore.
A sprinkle can’t be ruled out for the island, but it should be mainly cloudy this afternoon. Sun will give way to clouds again on Thursday as a weak disturbance passes by. This will bring a few flurries to the area Thursday evening. Sun returns for Friday and Saturday, but temperatures will remain about 10° below normal.
I’m still keeping a close eye on the potential for a storm Sunday-Monday. The energy from a Pacific storm has stalled a bit and won’t be moving onshore until later today. Once it moves eastward past the Rockies, it will gather moisture and redevelop. With all of the cold air in place over much of the country, this could lead to some icy conditions across the Mississippi Valley, and potentially heavy snow for the Smokey Mountains region of Tennessee and North Carolina.
The storm will then try to make a northward turn later in the weekend, but strong high pressure to the north may suppress the storm to the south. There will however be a clipper diving down from Canada that could try to phase with the storm and pull it north. Right now, the best agreement this morning is that this may happen too late, due to that strong high wedged in between. But there’s still a large amount of uncertainty. I think this is going to be a very close call.
We should have a better grasp on what will happen in the next few days, once the different players of this storm are all over land. Until then, make sure to bookmark weatherlongisland.com and check back for updates throughout the week. Also be sure to follow Meteorologist Geoff Bansen and Meteorologist Joe Cioffi on social media! Geoff: Facebook Twitter Instagram Joe: Facebook Twitter Instagram
