Long Island woke up to a wintry mix and rough commute Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that is in effect until 7 p.m. Wednesday. The entire island will receive a mix of snow, sleet and rain, but Nassau County is expected to get more snow than Suffolk. Snow and freezing rain will continue throughout the day until a period of freezing drizzle and light sleet falls Tuesday evening.
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Forecasters said that a heavy mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain will then develop overnight, and then transition into all freezing rain Wednesday morning. Sometime midday Wednesday the freezing rain will change into just rain, and when the change occurs will have a large impact on icing amounts, according to the NWS.
Meteorologists predict that by the end of the storm Suffolk will have accumulated 2 to 4 inches of snow and sleet and up to 1/4 of an inch of ice accumulation. In Nassau 3 to 6 inches of snow and sleet accumulation is forecasted, with a quarter to 4 tenths of an inch of ice accumulation possible.
The Office of Emergency Management has issued a rush hour hazardous travel advisory for New York and is urging travelers to use mass transit. The snow and ice accumulations will make traveling dangerous through to the Wednesday morning commute with slippery roads and limited visibility. So far the Long Island Rail Road has no reported delays.
JetBlue says it will cancel its flights in and out of New York’s JFK airport beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday, with some flights to resume Wednesday afternoon.
Ice accumulations can knock down tree limbs and power lines. According to the Long Island Power Authority a little over 1,000 customers have lost service in the Huntington area. The situation is currently being assessed.
With Associated Press
