Douglas County might see freezing rain and snow this weekend, followed by very cold temperatures going into the week.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch to be in effect Saturday through Sunday afternoons for much of Kansas.
As of a Thursday morning update from the NWS’ Topeka office, Douglas County was expected to see a mix of sleet, freezing rain and moderate to heavy snow.
Update:
• Lawrence could receive 5 to 10 inches of snow in weekend winter storm, Jan. 3, 2025
The NWS forecast shows that precipitation will likely start with freezing rain, drizzle, sleet and snow on Saturday afternoon. Storm conditions are expected to peak Saturday night into Sunday, and intensity will decrease heading into Sunday evening.
Friday is expected to see a high temperature of 36°, with a low of 21° overnight. The forecast showed a high of 29° Saturday and a low of 18° overnight into Sunday morning, and a high of 23° Sunday, with a low of 2° overnight into Monday.
As of Thursday, the forecast for early next week showed low temperatures below 0° and highs in the upper teens, but sunny skies expected.
The City of Lawrence has not yet activated overflow winter emergency shelters, but updates will be available on the city’s website at lawrenceks.org/safe-shelter/.
Douglas County public works crews have been treating roads Thursday in preparation for the storm, according to the county.
Evergy is also preparing for the storm, according to a news release from the power company. The company recommends charging up cellphones and necessary electronics as well as making a plan for electronic medical equipment in the event of an outage.
See information below on how to report a power outage, where to go to get warm and much more.
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Severe weather resources
Get warm in Lawrence:
• See this page for locations to get warm during the day and overnight, where to get help for pets and more.
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.
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
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