Post last updated at 12:50 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22:
Lawrence Public Schools will not be in session Monday, and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office warns that icy road conditions have caused “several” slideoffs and noninjury crashes Monday morning.
School activities are also canceled.
“Our area is under a winter weather advisory due to the freezing rain and sleet that fell overnight, making for icy roads, parking lots, and sidewalks and hazardous travel,” district spokesperson Julie Boyle wrote in an email.
The Lawrence Public Library announced that it will delay opening until noon Monday.
At the University of Kansas’ Lawrence, Edwards and Leavenworth campuses, all classes that begin before noon are canceled and all classes scheduled for noon or later will be held as scheduled.
“The icy conditions have created a challenge for travel, especially on Kansas Highway 10 near Eudora,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook around 9 a.m. Monday. “Deputies and area agencies have handled several vehicle slide-offs and non-injury crashes going back to 3:30 a.m. If you can avoid travel this morning, it’s best to wait it out. Drive carefully and slowly if you are out.”
According to the National Weather Service in Topeka, “Freezing Drizzle is building into the area from the south this morning. Temperatures are expected to slowly rise above freezing allowing for a change over to drizzle for the afternoon before more rain and freezing rain move in this evening.”
Monday marks the fourth inclement weather day for Lawrence Public Schools this month. Boyle said the district typically waits to calculate its instructional hours until after the months with extreme weather conditions pass; once hours are totaled, district staff members will determine if they must add minutes or hours to meet state requirements.
Baldwin City and Eudora schools are also closed Monday.
Ken Lassman, who writes the Kaw Valley Almanac, is hosting a free presentation on the seasons and cycles of the area starting at 7 p.m. Monday for the Lawrence Bird Alliance. That event has been moved online.
The Lawrence school board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday as planned to discuss changes to graduation requirements and an MOU to support surging mental health needs. Read more about that at this link. School recognitions will be postponed, Boyle said.
See links to severe weather resources below.
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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.
