Post updated at 2:18 p.m. Wednesday, June 10:
The Douglas County area could see severe storms, including damaging wind, heavy rain and a tornado possible, late Wednesday afternoon and evening.
“Strong to severe storms may develop along a weak cold front this afternoon and evening from northeast to central Kansas,” according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. “Large hail (up to 2 inches) and damaging winds (60-70 mph) and localized flooding are the main hazards.”
According to the NWS forecast as of just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, Lawrence has a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before midnight, and wind gusts of up to 25 mph are possible.
The NWS also issued a tornado watch for the Lawrence area around 2:15 p.m., effective through 9 p.m. Wednesday.
A tornado watch means that conditions are right for a tornado to be possible, and people should be prepared; a tornado warning means that a tornado has been spotted or indicated by weather radar, and people should seek cover.
Thursday also has a 30% chance of showers and storms in the afternoon, according to the forecast. A cold front could bring temperatures down to the high 50s overnight Thursday into Friday, but severe weather is expected to stay more in east-central and southeastern Kansas, according to NWS.
There is a risk of flooding with additional rainfall.
“Over the past seven days, the region has had multiple inches of rain. Several more inches of rain are forecast for Saturday and Saturday night,” according to NWS.
“There is a slight risk for excessive rainfall and flooding where the forecast has 1.5 to 3 inches of rain forecast on Saturday,” which includes Douglas County.
See severe weather resources and links to find the latest updates and sign up for emergency alerts below.
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Severe weather resources
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. Do not go near the line.
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.
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.
Highway conditions beyond Lawrence:
• KanDrive, an app and website from the Kansas Department of Transportation, has info on highway conditions statewide. KanDrive is available online at KanDrive.gov, and its app is available for download free on the App Store and Google Play.
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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