A nor’easter that has taunted Long Island the last few days finally erupted and dropped up to 8 inches of snow on the Island, making for a slow and slushy morning commute Friday.
Though drivers were slowed by the ongoing storm, local authorities weren’t reporting any major accidents on roadways except for a crash on the Sagtikos State Parkway northbound near Exit S4 that left two lanes closed, according to New York State Department of Transportation’s website.
Both Nassau and Suffolk police said there wasn’t anything major to report.
The storm, which is still dropping snow on most of the Island, didn’t discriminate. The National Weather Service reported 8 inches of snow in Syosset and more than 7 inches in both Floral Park and Albertson as of 8 a.m.
Reports out of Centereach listed snow totals at 5 ½ inches, the Upton-based National Weather Service noted. East Northport measured 5 inches and Centerport and Upton saw more than 4 inches, forecasters said, according to early calculations. The East End was also impacted, with Bridgehampton measuring in at 4 ½ inches of snow as of Friday morning.
The second round of this slow-moving nor’easter brought heavier snow than when it first entered Long Island late Wednesday, early-Thursday morning when residents saw 1 to 3 inches of mostly wet snow.
This round picked up overnight and into Friday morning and blanketed most of the Island with heavy snow.
And the nor’easter isn’t done.
“It still appears like these bands of snow will continue to move in throughout the morning,” and potentially through late afternoon before tapering off, said National Weather Service meteorologist David Stark.
The weather service extended its winter weather advisory until 6 p.m. Friday and also upgraded the alert to a winter weather warning for northern Nassau County due to significant accumulation in some areas.
But Stark said the weather service isn’t anticipating snow to build up as the day goes on, particularly because temperatures should remain above freezing.
The good news is the storm should clear out rapidly Friday night, Stark said, and will give way to sunny skies Saturday.
The nor’easter did cause dozens of schools in the area to either close or issue delayed openings.
Despite strong wind gusts, power outages were minimal, according to the Long Island Power Authority’s website. As of 10 a.m. nearly 500 customers were without power.
