Post updated at 4:37 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30:
Lawrence and Douglas County could see severe thunderstorms starting Wednesday afternoon, with heavy winds possible.
The National Weather Service in Topeka also issued a tornado watch for much of eastern Kansas and parts of western Missouri around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, in effect until 10 p.m.
A tornado “watch” means conditions are right for a tornado to be possible. A tornado “warning” means a tornado is imminent.
A hazardous weather outlook notice from the NWS warns that storms were possible mainly after 4 p.m. Wednesday and continuing through the evening until around 1 a.m. Thursday.
“Large hail, damaging wind, and a few tornadoes are all possible,” according to NWS.
The chance of precipitation in Lawrence ranges from 60% Wednesday afternoon up to 90% Wednesday night, according to the forecast as of 12:30 p.m. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph, and the forecast shows an overnight low of 46°.
Thursday is expected to be sunny with a high near 60° and a low of 37° overnight into Friday morning. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph Thursday, but the weather should be fairly friendly to trick-or-treaters.
Showers and storms could return Friday night, through the weekend and into next week, according to the forecast.
Lawrence has received less than one-tenth of an inch of precipitation for the month through Tuesday — well below the norm of 2.76 inches, according to NWS almanac data. High temperatures this month have also been about 9° warmer than usual.
See links below to find the most up-to-date weather info from NWS.
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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) 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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Andrea Albright/Lawrence Times
