Here are places to go to get out of winter weather in Lawrence, plus links to more information and resources.
This page is a work in progress. Know of a resource we should add or something that needs to be updated here? Please let us know.
Page last updated Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024
Daytime options
The City of Lawrence is offering its recreational facilities as places to get warm during their open hours (and notes that all guests must follow facility rules).
In the event of severe weather, some or all facilities could shorten their hours or close. Check the city’s RainoutLine website and news at lawrenceks.org/news for updates.
Here are the locations and details; see a map below on this page:
Lawrence Community Building
115 W. 11th St. (just west of 11th and Massachusetts streets)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
East Lawrence Recreation Center
1245 E. 15th St. (just east of 15th Street and Haskell Avenue)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Holcom Park Recreation Center
2700 W. 27th St. (just east of 27th Street and Lawrence Avenue)
Regular hours:
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Sports Pavilion Lawrence
100 Rock Chalk Lane (~1 mile north of Sixth Street and George Williams Way on the far northwestern edge of town)
Regular hours:
5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays
1 to 9 p.m. Sundays
Overnight options
The Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., is the primary option to seek overnight shelter.
The shelter is on the eastern edge of town, near the Douglas County jail.
LCS can be reached by the Route 1 bus from downtown. It leaves the stop at Seventh and Vermont streets starting at 6 a.m., and the last downtown stop is at 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. See the full route and schedule at this link. Buses are free to ride for 2024.
LCS can accommodate pets along with their owners.
The shelter is open 24/7, and its administrative offices are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
See LCS’s website at lawrenceshelter.org/seeking-shelter to learn more about staying there, or call 785-832-8864 for more information.
Help for pets
The Lawrence Humane Society can help pets whose owners are experiencing homelessness with needs such as temporary boarding during extreme cold; getting up-to-date shots and paperwork; pet food; spaying and neutering and more.
LHS’ main phone number is 785-843-6835. People should visit the Pet Resource Center, which is the lime green side of the building at 1805 E. 19th St.
If people who need to bring in their pets in order to seek sheltering can call LHS to give a heads up, that’s ideal, but if that’s not possible, just show up from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Read more at this link.
On the map
This map shows the locations of the facilities mentioned above.
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) via this form.
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.
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.
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
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. Find our contact info (and a quick contact form) at this link.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
Latest Lawrence news:
Teen pleads guilty to reckless murder of Lawrence girl
A Kansas City teen on Wednesday pleaded guilty to the reckless murder of a Lawrence girl, which he said occurred when he was “dry-firing” a gun.
Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board chair accepts city commission’s challenge
The Lawrence City Commission has approved a resolution to sunset the Sustainability Advisory Board in September — with a challenge to the board to reimagine its own purpose in the interim.
Lawrence City Commission will no longer broadcast public comment, which will be near ends of meetings
Lawrence city commissioners approved most proposed changes to public comment procedures, including no longer broadcasting general public comment live.
Lawrence City Commission approves strategic plan to end homelessness; county commission to consider
Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved the joint city-county strategic plan to end homelessness, which estimates a total of about $268 million to fulfill its goals over the next five years.
Dillons to close 23rd Street location, open one on KU’s west campus
Dillons is planning to close its 23rd Street store and open a larger one at The Crossing At KU, the new mixed-use development in progress on west campus.