A winter weather advisory for Riverhead and the North Fork will take effect at midnight and last through 6 a.m. Tuesday, as Mother Nature pummels the area with an icy blast that’s slated to make the morning and evening commutes treacherous.
According to Tim Morrin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Upton, after midnight, “two players”, including precipitation from the west and cold air poised up over Massachusetts and northern Connecticut will start “oozing down south. When those two factors converge after midnight, we’re expecting precipitation in the form of rain mixed with snow.”
Although temps are expected to remain in the mid-30s tonight, by daybreak, a low of 27 degrees is forecast, so any rain that falls will freeze upon impact with the cold ground — causing a glaze of almost a quarter inch of ice, Morrin said.
“That’s enough to cause treacherous driving,” he said. Throughout the day Monday, approximately one to two inches of snow is expected to fall, “not an impressive amount,” Morrin said.
The sole reason for the winter weather advisory is to warn motorists about icy road conditions, he said.
“If the roadway appears wet anytime after daybreak, chances are, especially if they are untreated, they’re icy. And even very stable all-wheel and four-wheel drives can’t perform well in the ice, as we’ve seen time and time again,” Morrin said.
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