Gusty Winds, Small Hail Possible as Thunderstorms Approach Long Island

Another day, another threat of serious thunderstorms on Long Island.

Storms that have knocked out power to tens of thousands in New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wednesday may impact the region this afternoon.

Some of the storms could produce small hail and gusty winds, the National Weather Service says.

• Sign up here for weather and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox

The strongest thunderstorm cells have so far remained south of Long Island, but the NWS says it "will need to watch cells emerging off Monmouth County NJ coast as they could reach portions of southern Long Island."

The rain will quickly move east and end by late this afternoon and there should be some clearing behind it before sunset, the NWS says.

As of 2:12 p.m., PSEG Long Island says 884 of its customers are without power, including 372 in Dix Hills and 154 in East Patchogue. It's unclear, though, if any of those outages are related to the storms. See the PSEG outage map here. If you lose power, call PSEG at 800-490-0075.

A special marine warning is in effect until 2:30 p.m. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves, the NWS says.

There's nice weather on the horizon, though. Expect sunny skies and highs in the mid-70s Thursday through the weekend.