Update, 3:17 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5:
Low visibility and impassable conditions have prompted the Kansas Department of Transportation to close all highways in northeastern Kansas.
KDOT announced the update Sunday afternoon as snow continued to fall.
Update:
• Kansas highways, roads starting to reopen; Lawrence streets may be tough to navigate, Jan. 6, 2025
“I-70 is now closed in both direction from the Missouri state line in Kansas City west to the Ellsworth County line in western Kansas. Eastbound I-70 is also closed from Hays to the Missouri state line,” according to the update.
“In addition, all highways are now closed in Marshall, Nemaha, Brown, Doniphan, Riley, Pottawatomie, Jackson, Atchison, Wabaunsee, Shawnee, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Lyon, Osage, Douglas, Wyandotte and Johnson counties,” the update continued.
Update, 11:06 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 5:
Parts of Kansas Highway 10 and U.S. Highway 40 that were closed in Douglas County because of poor weather conditions have reopened as of 9:45 a.m. Sunday, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
KanDrive, an app and website from KDOT, has info on road conditions statewide. (Read more about it at this link.)
The app is available for download free on the App Store and Google Play. It is available online at KanDrive.gov.
Original post, 10:42 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4:
As a blizzard warning has been extended to include Douglas County, the Kansas Department of Transportation is closing parts of Kansas Highway 10 in the county.
K-10 between U.S. 59 Highway (the Iowa Street interchange) and the Douglas/Johnson county line will be closed with no estimated time for reopening, KDOT announced Saturday night.
In addition, U.S. Highway 40 will be closed from K-4 in Topeka to K-10 in Lawrence, according to the announcement.
The National Weather Service in Topeka has issued a blizzard warning to include Douglas County from 3 a.m. Sunday to midnight Monday.
“Roads will be extremely hazardous. Travel could be nearly impossible,” according to NWS. “Widespread blowing snow could significantly reduce visibility. Gusty winds could bring down tree branches.”
The NWS forecast includes snow accumulations between 5 and 12 inches, sleet accumulations of around half an inch and up to two-tenths of an inch of ice. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph.
See links to more severe weather information, resources and ongoing coverage below.
If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
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.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and where snowplows have been. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
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 Evergy’s emergency line, 800-383-1183, if above-ground lines are arcing or making contact with trees or vegetation. Call 911 immediately if overhead power lines are on the ground or a fire starts.
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.
If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at Hello@LawrenceKSTimes.com (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
Latest Lawrence news:
Natasha Torkzaban/Lawrence Times
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
