Mother Nature will not let Long Island rest – meteorologists are forecasting another nor'easter for the middle of this week to strike already reeling from Hurricane Sandy.
The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for our area, detailing the storm as a potential nor'easter that could bring rain, wind and potentially wintry precipitation to the tri-state area.
"There are indications that there could be a storm developing, but it's a little too early to really get into specifics at this point," Dan Hoffman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, told Riverhead Patch on Friday. "It could be a nor'easter, but at this point it's too early to say."
The storm, which could bring some minor flooding along the already destroyed coastlines, would not be close to the intensity of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, but it would still be an unwelcome sight and could cause more potential damage with an already soaked ground and compromised structures Island-wide.
"The effect on us would be determined by how close to the coast it actually tracks," he said.
A storm could evolve, Hoffman said, because of the weather pattern that the area is already in, with a large area of pressure over the North Atlantic acting to blow the wind straight east to west, with a jet stream buckling and bringing storms up the coast.
The storm system still has yet to evolve and the intensity and track have days to change, but the forecasting systems used and trusted for Sandy – the "EURO" and "GFS" – both have showed the nor'easter tracking up the coast and hitting Long Island Wednesday through Thursdays.
Depending on the interaction of the storm front with an incoming arctic cold front, the storm could produce snow in areas – Long Island being a long shot.
The week ahead will bring much colder temperatures as well, nor'easter or not. The National Weather Service has forecast temperatures in the mid-30s during the evenings for the next week and warns those without power will have tough nights ahead.
