Long Island is facing a two-week cold snap as arctic air rushes into New York, forecasters say. But little snow is forecast.

“A significant pattern change is expected across much of the country,” according to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center, which predicted an “arctic outbreak” would spread across New York and the Southeast.

The cold front is expected to bring “extraordinarily high probabilities” of cold and subfreezing temperatures “across much of the East,” the weather service said.

Forecasters said temperatures will become increasingly colder from this week through mid-January. Arctic air is moving into the region from central Canada due to a low pressure system to the north and a high pressure system to the south, increasing cold air into the region, said Matt Wunsch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton.

According to the weather service, temperatures are expected to reach highs in the upper to mid 30s for the remainder of this week, highs in the lower 30s through next week and lows in the lower 20s.

“Temperatures could be in an overall downward trend toward the end of next week,” Wunsch said. “From this gusty northwesterly flow, we could get stuck in this pattern and it should stay mostly dry and cold.”

However, the cold front is not expected to bring much snow to Long Island. Parts of the region could see light snow on Monday. But that storm front is currently moving south, Wunsch said.

“It doesn’t look like there will be a larger system anytime soon,” Wunsch said. “We could get a few snow showers, but it doesn’t look significant unless it turns north. At the moment it should only be a few centimeters at most.”

The Climate Prediction Center, which provides long-range forecasts, said the two-week forecast forecast the coldest weather of the season for some parts of the East Coast and into the Southeast.

That’s a stark contrast to temperatures in the 50s and even low 60s last week, when rain and thunderstorms swept across New York between Christmas and New Year’s. For Long Island, however, forecasters did not predict the frigid temperatures that hit the region in the week before Christmas, with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens.

Still, the cold front could bring “dangerous wind chills,” including on Long Island, where wind chills in the low 20s will begin this week, forecasters said.

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.