Bitter cold keeps snow on ground on Long Island until midweek warmup

The more than eight inches of snow that slammed Long Island will stick around for a couple of days amid bitter cold before Mother Nature flips the switch again.

As Long Islanders dig out from the Sunday storm, wind chills from westerly gusts will make it feel like between 10 and 20 degrees Monday night. Tuesday's high will be a chilly 34, despite the ample sunshine, and the mercury will fall throughout the day, with similar wind chills at night.

The temperatures then rise overnight to a high of 44 on Wednesday, with gusty winds, and then relief: A high of 53 on Thursday with lots of sunshine and 54 on Friday.

The weekend snow spurred lengthy flight delays at area airports and warnings to stay home and off the roads. The bulk of the snow moved east by Sunday afternoon and Monday brought sunny skies with temperatures in the 20s.

Commack reported 8.5 inches of snow, the most in Suffolk. Plainedge and Farmingdale led Nassau with 8 inches each.

LIRR delays reported Monday

The Long Island Rail Road on Monday morning reported scattered 15-20 minute delays on its Ronkonkoma, Port Jefferson and Oyster Bay branches due to weather related switch problems, according to its website. The Hempstead and Montauk branches were also experiencing similar delays. By late morning, the railroad was reporting some delays on the Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson branches due to late-arriving equipment.

Monday afternoon, some delays were reported on the Ronkonoma and Port Jefferson line.

Both airports continued to have numerous delays and cancellations throughout the day and recommend travelers call before going to the airports.

As of 4:30 p.m., JFK was reporting 314 delays, 68 cancellations and LaGuardia was reporting 247 delays, 60 cancellations.