Rather than a white Christmas, a foggy one prevailed in Lawrence.
Kris Craven, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of Topeka, said fog is essentially a cloud on the ground.
The outside temperature and dew point must match, resulting in the air becoming completely saturated, Craven said. Radiation fog, the type that crept through town at night and into early morning hours the past few days, typically requires calm winds.
Some patchy fog may return Friday night as warm weather continues into Saturday. Craven said the NWS encourages drivers to take their time in foggy conditions, use fog lights if their vehicles are equipped, and avoid using high beams.
George Diepenbrock, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said deputies responded to three non-injury car crashes across Wednesday and Thursday, but they all were in the late afternoon and evening when fog was cleared. Additionally, Diepenbrock said law enforcement are currently participating in the “Taking Down DUI” campaign, which runs through Friday, Jan. 2.
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Craven said the forecast high temperatures of 66° on Friday and 69° on Saturday for Lawrence approach records, and the weekend has the potential to break the 2021 record high of 68° in Lawrence.
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A 20% chance of rain, or a slight wintry mix, is forecast for sometime after midnight and before noon Sunday. If precipitation falls, it’ll be shortlived and won’t amount to much, Craven said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if you heard a rumble of thunder early in the morning on Sunday, right as the front is starting to approach,” Craven said.
Temperatures will begin to fall back down Sunday, when the wind gusts will shift from 5 mph to up to 35 mph. By Monday morning, temperatures are expected to land in the teens.
The only substantial snowfall in Lawrence so far this season was around 4 inches on Dec. 1. Craven said to be prepared for more winter weather ahead.
“Don’t let your guard down yet,” Craven said. “It’s only December. We still have January and February to get through.”
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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.
Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Latest Lawrence news:
Chloe Anderson/Lawrence Times
