Lawrence is preparing for more winter weather to come after at least 3 to 8 inches of snow settled Tuesday, combined with gusty winds.
Meteorologist Jenifer Prieto with the National Weather Service said the west and north sides of town saw between 5 and 8 inches of snow, and downtown saw 3 to 5.
Although Tuesday’s snowfall reached a halt and sunny skies showed through by early afternoon, Prieto said the heavy winds would continue into Tuesday evening.
The Evergy outage map showed some power outages throughout the city Tuesday and several dozen customers still without power Tuesday afternoon.
According to Evergy’s winter storm update, high winds in gusts up to 50 mph have been the primary cause of power outages overnight into early Tuesday morning. In other areas of the state and region, about 35,000 customers were still without power as of 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from the company.
Sgt. Drew Fennelly of the Lawrence Police Department said that as of Tuesday morning, police had responded to nine vehicle crashes since snow began falling Monday. None involved injuries.
George Diepenbrock, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said deputies had responded to 37 motorist assist calls and eight noninjury crashes since noon Monday. Mostly, those were motorists who needed help because their vehicles slid off of county roads or highways. The majority of those assist calls had occurred since 7 a.m. Tuesday and resulted from the heavy amounts of snow as well as blowing snow caused by high winds.
Diepenbrock said DGSO advises folks to drive carefully if they must venture out in these conditions.
“Deputies have not responded to any injury crashes as of now in the past 24 hours, and we ask people to continue to be cautious, especially with the conditions expected the rest of the week,” Diepenbrock said via email Tuesday afternoon.
Joshua Taylor, Douglas County emergency management specialist, said several power lines and tree limbs had come down Tuesday, and city crews were working on cleanup.
In addition to cars sliding off roads, two semi trucks reported having trouble getting up hills. A few transformers blew, as well.
More snow, low temperatures to come
Rain and snow are expected to return to Lawrence later this week. Additionally, temperatures will drop from Wednesday night into Thursday.
According to a post on the City of Lawrence’s Facebook page Tuesday morning, city crews were closing one block of Massachusetts Street at a time, beginning with the 600 block and moving south, to remove snow in downtown Lawrence. The goal was to clear large snow piles before they harden to ice and become difficult to move as future snowfall and cold air make their way in.
Thursday night into Friday morning could bring more snowfall, and Prieto said she and her colleagues were still working on those amount estimations. More snow could also come Saturday night into Sunday.
Temperatures will likely hit a low around 13° Thursday night, Friday’s forecast shows a high of 18° and a nighttime low of 0°, and wind chills are expected to be very cold. Then the NWS expects it to get colder. Sunday night into Monday, the forecast shows a low of -10°.
Use this guide to see road conditions and a map of where city snow plows are headed. See more weather resources at the links below.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Severe weather resources
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call 911.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and snow plow locations. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
