LI braces for the cold: Snowstorm moves out but the big chill arrives

Long Islanders started the week digging out from a foot of snow and will likely end it shivering in single-digit temperatures.

Experts said temperatures over the coming days and nights will be so far below freezing — never warmer than 28 degrees and as cold as 6 — that whatever snow, ice and slush is on the ground will likely remain, augmented by snow showers and a possible second storm next weekend or early next week.

"There have been some rumblings in the models," said Jase Bernhardt, Hofstra University assistant professor of geology, environment and sustainability. "There’s definite potential."

The weekend storm dumped 14.5 inches of snow on Fort Salonga and 12.2 in East Massapequa, highs for Suffolk and Nassau counties according to the National Weather Service. The lowest snowfall totals for the counties were 8 inches in Sayville and 8.1 inches in Levittown.

It was a lethal storm for some.

In New York City, eight people, some of whom may have been homeless, died during the storm, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said Monday. 

On Long Island, in Floral Park, a retired NYPD sergeant died Sunday while preparing to shovel snow at his church. Three people died from shoveling in Suffolk, county spokesman Mike Martino said Monday evening. He didn't immediately have further details.

Monday night, the weather service was forecasting a 30% chance of snow for Saturday and Sunday.

By Monday morning, a Suffolk County spokesman said roads were in "very good condition." By evening, New York State’s 511ny website showed traffic moving at normal speed on Long Island roads. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Long Island Rail Road trains were running with delays on Babylon, Montauk, Oyster Bay, and Ronkonkoma lines, with some trains skipping stops at Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Woodside. Normally packed trains carried just a smattering of hardy commuters.

With wind chills headed down to zero, the PSEG website showed 11 outages affecting 891 customers across Long Island. Public schools, closed Monday across the Island, were set to reopen Tuesday for a normal school day in some districts, though administrators in Jericho and Middle Island said they were still weighing a delayed opening.

In Babylon and Huntington, town representatives said road cleanup would take days. Part of the problem was road crews were forced into "double-dipping," said Huntington spokeswoman Christine Geed: homeowners shovel snow from driveways and sidewalks onto clean roads, so town plows must make multiple passes.

In North Hempstead, Bill Cutrone, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association, said some homeowners were creating hazards by aiming their snowblowers into the streets instead of their lawns.

When the temperature or wind chill falls below 32 degrees, a state regulation requires local social service departments to ensure that anyone experiencing homelessness has access to shelter. In Nassau County, about 40 people were admitted to warming centers and short-term hotel stays from Saturday to early Monday morning under the regulation, said Chris Boyle, a spokesman for County Executive Bruce Blakeman. In Suffolk, there were 77 placements, according to Mike Martino, a spokesman for County Executive Edward P. Romaine. 

Emergency room visits were up at the region’s Catholic Health hospitals, said Dr. Christopher Raio, the system’s chief of emergency medicine, citing "chest paints triggered by snow shoveling and frostbite caused by prolonged exposure to the cold," in an email.

Shovelers would be correct in suspecting the snow they’re lifting this week is actually heavier than usual, said Nelson Vaz, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Upton weather station.

That’s because the weekend storm, tracking from the southern United States, brought with it a massive amount of moisture, which froze when it ran into an equally massive arctic air mass sweeping down from Canada.

The result: less snow than we might otherwise have gotten, but 1-2 inches of sleet.

"Sleet is much heavier, because of its dense water content," Vaz said in an email. "About 15-20 pounds per shovel load, versus about 5-7 pounds" for pure, fluffy snow.

Anyone using an old-fashioned shovel may want to consider switching to a more ergonomic model, according to doctors Newsday interviewed this week. Warm up with torso rotations, shoulder rolls and gentle hamstring stretches. When shoveling, keep your spine straight, don’t round your shoulder or back, and bend at the hips and knees, not at the waist.

More arctic air — "cold air reinforcements" is the term the National Weather Service uses — was expected Tuesday night, with a second round expected to move in Wednesday night, with temperatures well below normal through the weekend.

"It’s a blocking pattern," Hofstra’s Bernhardt said. "The next 7-10 days are not promising for above-average temperatures."