A tornado that touched down Tuesday night just north of Douglas County was an EF1, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale ranges from EF0, least severe, to EF5, the most severe.
The tornado in Jefferson County had peak winds of 107 mph along a nearly 2-mile path. It had a maximum width of 100 yards, and it was on the ground from 6:57 to 7:03 p.m., the NWS said via social media Wednesday afternoon.
There were no injuries or deaths from that tornado, according to NWS, though one person was killed and three others were injured in an EF3 tornado in Westmoreland, Kansas, about 86 miles northwest of Lawrence.
There is a possibility of more storms Wednesday and Thursday, according to NWS, though there is a low probability of more tornadoes.
“Another line of storms moving into northern Kansas this evening and overnight could produce damaging winds and hail,” according to an afternoon advisory from NWS.
“Showers and thunderstorms continue along and ahead of a cold front into Thursday afternoon that could create a risk for flooding. Some of these storms may become strong to severe with damaging winds and quarter-sized hail being the main concerns. Additional chances for storms will continue Friday night into Saturday and again early next week,” the advisory continued.
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.
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Maya Hodison/Lawrence Times
