Lawrence may see around half an inch of snow that will begin falling Thursday afternoon before the bitter cold weekend arrives.
In the coming days, the city can expect lighter snow than the 3 to 8 inches that fell on Tuesday. Meteorologist Bill Gargan with the National Weather Service said half an inch to potentially 1 inch at most of snow is forecast to fall Thursday afternoon into Friday morning, or possibly afternoon.
Heavy winds will begin picking up Friday with gusts moving at 20 to 30 mph, and potentially get up to 35 mph.
Existing snow on the ground — which could harden due to cold temperatures — and the new, fluffy snow will be vulnerable to the wind, Gargan said. Community members should prepare for potential blowing snow to continue through Friday.
Temperatures will likely hit a low of 12° Thursday night. Friday’s forecast shows a high of 18° and a nighttime low of 1°.
A high of 11° is in the forecast for Saturday, and Gargan said the wind chill that afternoon will likely drop off into the -5° to -10° range. By Saturday night, the wind chill could be -8°.
Sunday’s high temperature is forecast to be 2°, and Gargan said “we’ll be lucky to get above 0°.” Wind chills Sunday night could drop to -26°.
With the low temperatures and strong winds coming in, Gargan encourages people to prepare to shelter as much as they can and bundle up. Frostbite can hit within minutes of being outside.
See links to severe weather resources and information below.
Get warm
The city is offering its recreational facilities as places to get warm during their open hours (and notes that all guests must follow facility rules).
The Lawrence Community Shelter will be available to stay warm overnight.
The shelter can be reached by the Route 1 bus from downtown. It leaves the stop at Seventh and Vermont streets starting at 6 a.m., and the last downtown stop is at 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. See the full route and schedule at this link. Buses are free to ride for 2024.
Outside of the daytime recreation facility hours, Misty Bosch-Hastings, homeless programs coordinator for the city, told Lawrence city commissioners Tuesday that if police and Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical responders are unable to give someone a ride out to the shelter, city staff members are on call 24/7.
If the shelter does hit capacity, staff members will give people rides to the Santa Fe train depot — the Amtrak station in East Lawrence — where they can have a chair inside to stay warm overnight, Bosch-Hastings said. Read more details at this link.
Recreational facility details:
Lawrence Community Building
115 W. 11th St. (just west of 11th and Massachusetts streets)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
East Lawrence Recreation Center
1245 E. 15th St. (just east of 15th Street and Haskell Avenue)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Holcom Park Recreation Center
2700 W. 27th St. (just east of 27th Street and Lawrence Avenue)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Sports Pavilion Lawrence
100 Rock Chalk Lane (~1 mile north of Sixth Street and George Williams Way on the far northwestern edge of town)
Regular hours:
5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
1 to 9 p.m. Sundays
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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.
Latest Lawrence news:
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Mark Potts/Lawrence Times
