The National Weather Service has issued a series of flood warnings for coastal Nassau and southwest Suffolk, as well as parts of Queens, through Friday.
In a statement, the weather service also warned of dangerous surf backflows until Friday evening.
After 11 p.m. on Wednesday, there is a 50% chance of rain, dropping to 40% throughout the day and into Thursday evening, the weather service said. On Friday, the chance of rain is again at 50%.
“It doesn’t look like there will be a lot of rain either day,” said Dominick Ramunni, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Upton office.
“But considering how dry it has been over the last week,” Ramunni added, “any kind of rain like this is certainly welcome.”
Regardless of the amount of precipitation, the risk of flooding remains two nights after the full moon.
“The reason for this is astronomically high tides,” Ramunni said. “When you add to this the persistent land current from a weak low pressure system off the coast, which basically helps to dam the water a little higher than it would normally be, we will see minor flooding of normally dry ground.”
The current weather service warnings warn of multiple possible coastal flooding in southern Queens, southern Nassau and southwestern Suffolk. The warning for southwestern Suffolk is in effect until 1 a.m. Thursday. A second flood warning for the same area goes into effect at 9 a.m. Thursday and is in effect until 2 p.m.
A flood warning for southern Nassau comes into effect at 8:00 a.m. Thursday and lasts until noon.
A further warning for southwest Suffolk and southern Nassau is scheduled to begin at 8pm Thursday and end at 2am Friday.
Residents of the “most vulnerable coastal areas” along the bays of the south coast and the western part of Long Island Sound should expect flooding of up to 30 centimeters, Ramunni said.
He added that coastal flooding could not be ruled out this weekend either.
“Our current forecast is that the flooding will continue for further cycles,” he said. “It is therefore very likely that the flooding will continue beyond tomorrow.”
The weather service also issued a small boat warning for all of Long Island and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut and warned of dangerous rip currents in southern Queens, southern Nassau and southwestern Suffolk.
