Sinking air suppressed snowfall —
but here comes the wind

There’s not much snow on the ground this morning, but the snow that fell yesterday and last night is being blown around by very strong winds.

The blizzard warning has been canceled but a high wind warning remains in effect until 2 p.m. for northwest winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.

Blowing and drifting snow will make travel difficult this morning, especially on roads surrounded by open fields which typically experience significant snow drifts, particularly north-south roads, as well as Sound Avenue, Reeves Avenue, Peconic Bay Boulevard east of South Jamesport Avenue and Hulse Landing Road.

Local roads could be subject to closures due to drifting snow, Riverhead Highway Superintended George Woodson said. “I implore people to stay off the roads altogether this morning, until the winds die down. Drifting will be a problem.” There’s not much that can be done about that with the winds blowing at 5o to 60 mph, Woodson said.

Highway crews were out overnight plowing the two to three inches of snow that fell late last night and very early this morning. A band of heavy snow was forecast to arrive around 10 p.m., but it didn’t happen.

The National Weather Service in New York, which canceled the blizzard warning as of 1:30 this morning, said the dearth of snow is explained by the development of “an area of sinking air” over Long Island, that prohibited substantial snow.

The sinking air, called a subsidence, is a feature that develops on a very small scale and it is difficult to predict its exact location, the National Weather Service in New York said in a Facebook post this morning. “If this area of sinking air was weaker or further north, we would have seen more snowfall,” the weather service said.

Surface temperatures will continue to plummet as arctic air rapidly spreads east across the region, the weather service said in a statement this morning.

A winter weather advisory remains in effect until 1 p.m. A wind chill advisory is in effect from 6 p.m. this evening until 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Closings, cancellations and delays

Church services were canceled this morning at Baiting Hollow Congregational Church and at First Congregational Church of Riverhead.

Cross Sound Ferry has canceled its casino connections for today as well as the following auto ferry departures: the noon, 4 and 7 p.m. ferries from Orient and the 10 a.m., 2 and 6 p.m. ferries from New London.

Top photo caption: Reeves Avenue drifted over and became impassable during the last storm. File photo: Peter Blasl