A week ago Schaen Cargill was watering his lawn in springlike weather. Thursday afternoon he was shoveling 4 inches of snow off his sidewalks in the area of 21st Street and Barker Avenue.

“My garden hoses are frozen because they’ve been out in the yard,” Cargill said. “I’ve been watering twice a week.”

Nevertheless, Cargill welcomed the first major snowstorm of the year that dumped 4 to 5 inches of snow on Lawrence and shut down virtually all public and private schools.

“I wish we had a half a foot more,” he said.

Weather forecasters say no more snow is in the immediate future for Lawrence. Instead, area residents this morning are waking up to bone-chilling cold. The temperature could be as low as 3 degrees, 6News forecaster Ross Janssen said.

Despite the cold, street conditions should be back to normal in time for the morning traffic rush, said Tom Orzulak, manager of Lawrence’s Public Works Street Maintenance division.

“That’s our goal,” Orzulak said. “The sun came out (Thursday) and that helped us.”

As of Thursday evening, city crews had spread an estimated 2,000 tons of a salt-and-sand mixture on the streets, Orzulak said.

Brystt Jordan, 8, sleds with his dog, Tanner, at Clinton Park. Five inches of snow overnight Wednesday led to school cancellations Thursday -- and to much rejoicing among students.

Lawrence public schools were expected to be open today after shutting down Thursday because of the bad weather, officials said. If there is an unexpected change, it will be announced through the news media, district spokeswoman Julie Boyle said.

In Lawrence, that announcement is made on 6News and posted on the Journal-World’s Web site, www.ljworld.com.

But Thursday morning some people watching Kansas City television stations didn’t get news of the closing immediately. It wasn’t mentioned. That was a result of an apparent communication breakdown between the Kansas City, Mo., clearinghouse for school closings used by the district and the stations, Boyle said.

The district’s 2002-2003 calendar includes one make-up day — April 18 — if school is called off for bad weather.

Kansas University, Baker University and Haskell Indian Nations University did not close Thursday. At KU, officials deemed the weather safe enough for the first day of spring semester classes to go on as scheduled, spokesman Todd Cohen said.

“I’m sure there were people who wanted us to postpone our first day back,” he said. “Mother Nature tried to help out.”

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KU has canceled full days of classes only seven times since 1972, when the university started keeping records. During last year’s ice storm, two days of classes were canceled.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported numerous accidents Wednesday night and Thursday morning on the Kansas Turnpike and area highways. Most involved vehicles sliding into ditches or fender-benders, patrol dispatchers said.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday in Franklin County, a Kingsport, Tenn., man was injured when a tractor-trailer overturned on Interstate 35 about six miles north of the Franklin-Osage county line, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

The driver, Michael E. Barger, 56, was taken by Franklin County ambulance to Ransom Memorial Hospital. A report on his condition was unavailable.

Shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday, an eastbound tractor-trailer went into the ditch three miles east of Lawrence on Interstate 70, but the driver was not hurt.

Lawrence Police and Douglas County Sheriff’s departments weren’t called to any serious accidents, they said.

“It’s been pretty quiet,” Police Sgt. Mike Pattrick said Thursday afternoon.

Today should warm up from the single digits to near 30 degrees, Janssen said.

Staff writers Tim Carpenter and Terry Rombeck contributed to this report.

Perry Lake Marina workers Jerret Kubick, left, and Jerry Henry motor through frozen ice near the boat docks. Serious winter weather finally moved into the area on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, dumping between 4 and 5 inches of snow. The marina workers broke the ice on Thursday to create an access route for docked boats, which have been frozen in place since Wednesday.