North Fork prepares for more snow after Winter Storm Fern

Just days after digging out from Winter Storm Fern, North Fork residents could be hit with more flakes this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast calls for a 20% chance of snow Saturday night, with a 30% chance of precipitation before 1 p.m. on Sunday. Blustery conditions are expected both days, with temperatures plunging to 7 degrees Friday night — the coldest of the season so far.

Fern, the most powerful storm since 2022, dumped a foot of snow on Mattituck, while Orient recorded 11 inches, according to the National Weather Service. The heavy snowfall forced schools to cancel classes Monday and push back their starts by two hours on Tuesday.

Highway Department crews exhausted from clearing North Fork roads last weekend will be ready for the upcoming storm, Highway Superintendent Dan Goodwin said.

The crews plowed Sunday until midnight, then went back out at 2:30 a.m. Monday. That continued until around 8 a.m., when they started putting more salt and sand down. Throughout the storm, the highway department had 35 people working to keep streets clean and machinery working.

“The crew really did a phenomenal job,” Mr. Goodwin said. “It certainly tested our preparation from every facet, between the road crews having marked all of their more sensitive locations with plow markers and drain markers, knowing where all those features are that they have to be careful of when they’re plowing, to doing the operator maintenance on the vehicles.”

Mr. Goodwin said preparing for storms like Fern is a year-round effort, with crews beginning preparations for the next winter as soon as the current season ends.

Southold Police Chief Steven Grattan said that most residents heeded warnings to stay off the roads during the storm, resulting in a “relatively quiet” Sunday for police. Officers responded to just one minor accident involving a plow truck that damaged a garage near the Town Hall Annex.

Officers also helped two drivers whose cars were impeded by the inclement weather — one in Greenport around 3 p.m. and another in Cutchogue at 5 p.m., Chief Grattan said. The Cutchogue vehicle was left at the 7-Eleven on Main Road, while the other car was towed from Route 25 near Greenport Village to the owner’s home.

With another bitterly cold weekend ahead, organizers of the fourth annual North Fork Polar Plunge, postponed from last Sunday, canceled the popular fundraiser at Veterans Beach in Mattituck that was rescheduled for this Sunday.