Islip, New York

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 163.1 square miles (422.5 km²), of which, 105.3 square miles (272.7 km²) is land and 57.8 square miles (149.8 km²) (35.46%) is water.

The Town of Islip has the following boundaries: to the west, the Town of Babylon (at approximately route 231); to the east, the Town of Brookhaven (at approximately Nicoll's Road); to the north, the Town of Smithtown (at approximately the Long Island Expressway); and to the south, the Atlantic Ocean. The town includes part of Fire Island and the Great South Bay.

Under the Köppen climate classification, Islip has a humid continental climate (Dfa), with some maritime influence; it is part of USDA hardiness zone 7a.[8] The normal average monthly temperature ranges from 30.6 °F (−0.8 °C) in January to 73.9 °F (23.3 °C) in July; on average, there are 18 days where the temperature remains at or below freezing and 7.5 days with a high at or above 90 °F (32 °C) annually; the last year to not reach the latter mark was 2014.[9] Temperatures reaching 0 °F (−18 °C) or 100 °F (38 °C) are rare, and were last seen respectively on February 14, 2016 and July 22, 2011.[9] The record low is −14 °F (−26 °C), set on February 13, 1967, while the record high is 104 °F (40 °C), set on July 3, 1966.[9]

Precipitation averages 46.2 inches (1,170 mm) annually, and is somewhat evenly distributed throughout the year, though March and April are the wettest months in terms of total precipitation. Snowfall averages 24.8 inches (63 cm) per winter, falling almost entirely from December to March. As is typical of Long Island, snow cover does not usually remain for long, with an average of 20–21 days per winter with snow cover of at least 1 inch (2.5 cm).

On August 12–13, 2014, a new 24-hour precipitation record for the state of New York was set at 13.57 in (345 mm), including 1.08 in (27 mm) in 9 minutes during the morning of August 12.[10] This caused flooding on the Southern State Parkway, Sunrise Highway and other area thoroughfares.[11]

In 1987, the City of New York found that it had reached its landfill capacity. The city agreed to ship its garbage to Morehead City, North Carolina, where there were plans to convert it into methane. On March 22, 1987, the tugboat Break of Day towed the barge Mobro 4000 and its cargo of over 3,100 tons of trash. While it was in transit, a rumor spread that the 16 bundles of trash that contained hospital gowns, syringes and diapers was a contaminant that affected the entire load. As a result, the state of North Carolina refused to accept the waste. After an 11-day delay, the Mobro made its way to its home port in Louisiana, but that state, too, declined the waste. Similarly, Alabama,[14] three other states, and the nations of Mexico, Belize, and the Bahamas refused the load before the operators abandoned the plan and returned to New York.[15]

Lowell Harrelson, the owner of the garbage, tried to negotiate for the Mobro to dock near Queens, whence the refuse would be carried back to Islip by trucks. Claire Shulman, the borough president of Queens, was not consulted, however; she obtained a temporary restraining order that forced the waste to stay at sea. The Mobro and its decaying cargo stayed off the shores of Brooklyn until July, when the vessel was granted a federal anchorage in New Jersey. The court hearings ran until October, when it was agreed that the cargo should be incinerated in Brooklyn. The 430 tons of ash that remained from this process was added to the landfill in Islip.[15]

In response to the garbage barge incident, the Town of Islip developed Keep Islip Clean, WRAP, and other environmentally friendly initiatives to help bolster its image. These acts resulted in one of the nation's first comprehensive recycling programs.

• Brightwaters
• Islandia
• Ocean Beach ✝
• Saltaire ✝

• Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park
• Brentwood State Park
• Connetquot River State Park Preserve
• Heckscher State Park
• Robert Moses State Park

Long Island MacArthur Airport and the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, located in the Town of Islip, are both in the hamlet of Ronkonkoma. A smaller rural airport known as Bayport Aerodrome also exists within the town used for antique aircraft.

The Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch is one of two lines running through the town spanning between the Village of Babylon and the Hamlet of Blue Point in the Town of Brookhaven, with stations from Bay Shore through Sayville. The other line is the Main Line which runs through the northern part of the town with stations in Brentwood, Central Islip and Ronkonkoma, which not only serves as a major transportation hub, but is also located on the Islip-Brookhaven Town Line.

The Town of Islip is served entirely by Suffolk County Transit bus routes.

• Interstate 495 is the Long Island Expressway, and the sole interstate highway in the Town of Islip. It runs along the northern portion of the town between Exit 53 in Brentwood and east of Exit 59 in Ronkonkoma.
• Southern State Parkway enters the Town of Islip from the Town of Babylon, and has interchanges at Robert Moses Causeway (Exit 40), Suffolk CR 57 (Exit 41 W-E), and Sagtikos State Parkway (Exit 41A). Trucks are forbidden from using the parkway, as with most parkways on Long Island.
• Heckscher State Parkway is a continuation of Southern State Parkway leading west to east then curving south to Heckscher State Park in Great River.
• Sagtikos State Parkway is the main south-to-north parkway leading from Southern State and Heckscher Parkways in West Islip through the Long Island Expressway where it crosses the Islip-Smithtown Town Line.
• Robert Moses Causeway is a south-to-north parkway leading from Robert Moses State Park to Southern State Parkway.
• Ocean Parkway runs across Jones Beach Island and terminates at Captree State Park.
• New York State Route 27 is Sunrise Highway, the other limited-access highway in the town that does not forbid trucks.
• New York State Route 27A is Montauk Highway west of Connetquot River State Park.
• County Route 67 (Suffolk County, New York), the remaining drivable portion of the Long Island Motor Parkway
• County Route 85 (Suffolk County, New York) is Montauk Highway east of Connetquot River State Park.
• County Route 93 (Suffolk County, New York) is a four-lane south-north highway running from the northwestern edge of Sayville to the south and west side of Lake Ronkonkoma.
• County Route 97 (Suffolk County, New York) is a partial limited-access highway in southeastern Islip Township.
• New York State Route 111 is the south-to-north state route that runs from the Hamlet of Islip through Hauppauge into the Town of Smithtown.
• New York State Route 231 runs along the Babylon-Islip town line as the unfinished Babylon-Northport Expressway before curving to the northwest and entering the Town of Babylon entirely.
• New York State Route 454 is a west-east divided highway known as the Veterans' Memorial Highway, which runs northwest to southeast from Commack to NY 27 west of Suffolk CR 97 in Holbrook. Within the town it runs from NY 347 at the Islip-Smithtown Town Line and serves as the address for Long Island MacArthur Airport.

Passenger ferries depart to Fire Island from Bay Shore and Sayville, which lead to communities both in the Towns of Islip and Brookhaven. Bay Shore has terminals for Fire Island ferries, serving Atlantique, Dunewood, Fair Harbor, Kismet, Ocean Bay Park, Ocean Beach, Saltaire, and Seaview, and smaller hamlets. They are located at the southernmost end of Maple Avenue. Some daily ferries to Atlantique also make a stop at the Bay Shore Marina, which is across the canal from the Maple Avenue ferries.

Sayville's ferry terminals lead to the communities of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, both popular vacation communities for LGBT New Yorkers, as well as to Sailors Haven,[17] which is located within the Sunken Forest Visitor's Center.[18]