Long Island weather: Sunny weekend with little rain chance as drought watch continues for region

Long Island will have "a pretty nice weekend" with the temperature in the 70s and very little chance of rain, which is concerning if rainfall doesn’t pick up, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Engle.

The region typically gets more than 4 inches of rainfall in August, but just a half-inch of rain fell last month. The rainfall deficit has continued to a lesser degree in September, Engle told Newsday on Saturday.

"The reason why we’re starting to run a deficit is because August was so dry," he said. "If it continues later into the month and into October, then people have to watch [where they are] extinguishing cigarette butts and things like that because the dry ground starts to become timber."

On Aug. 29, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation placed Long Island under a drought watch.

The dry streak will continue on Saturday when it's expected to be clear. Those conditions will persist into Sunday as the temperature climbs to around 80, but there’s a small chance of rain Sunday night, the weather service said.

"We’re going to have a front come down late Sunday that could trigger a couple of showers or thunderstorms. There’s only a slight chance [20%] for Long Island," Engle said. 

The next chance of rain is late Wednesday night, Engle said. Until then "we’re going to stay seasonably warm into the first half of next week. Monday and Tuesday, you’re looking at mid and upper 70s with a good deal of sunshine."

The rainfall deficit could lead to water cutbacks and wildfire watches, tough, Engle said, "there won’t be repercussions unless it really continues."

"We’re not quite at that point yet, but starting to get dry," he said.

September’s rainfall deficit is far less drastic than it was in August, when precipitation was only about 13% of what’s usual. So far this month, Long Island has had an inch of rainfall, or 80% of the typical amount of precipitation at this point in September, Engle said.

"It’s not really so much September as to why we’re dry. It probably has more to do with August being dry," Engle said. Long Island usually gets "a little over 3 1/2 inches" in September.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

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.