For Lawrence residents, this weekend calls for salt, sand and perhaps a snow shovel.

Forecasts indicate that Lawrence could be in for drizzle today, changing to a mix of ice and freezing rain Saturday, before turning to sleet and snow late Saturday night, 6News chief meteorologist Jennifer Schack said. Schack said several inches of accumulated snowfall were possible by Sunday.

“Snowfall totals are difficult to predict because it depends on how long it stays as sleet. Then there’s less accumulation,” she said.

Causing the dayslong wintry mix is a storm with precipitation coming in two waves while temperatures drop from the 60s into the teens, said Mary Knapp, the Kansas state climatologist.

Knapp said some parts of Kansas – but not necessarily Lawrence – could experience 12 to 18 hours of icing before the storm changes to snow.

Knapp encouraged everyone to be prepared for the storm. She said in some parts of the state, the storm has the potential to be similar to a deadly ice storm that struck south-central Kansas in January 2005. It caused an estimated $30 million in damage.

The cold front would represent quite a turn from the warm weather the Lawrence area has enjoyed recently.

The average temperature during the past few weeks has been 15 degrees warmer than last year, Knapp said.

She expects temperatures to be in the teens next week.

Sandy Herd, who lives northeast of Lawrence, prepares her horses for rapidly dropping temperatures Thursday afternoon. Today's freezing drizzle is expected to change into sleet, ice and snow Saturday.

The above-average temperatures have changed the pattern of business at Westlake Ace Hardware, 711 W. 23rd St., manager Paul Groundwater said. Sales of snow shovels, rock salt and sleds are down, but sales of landscaping materials and general home repair supplies have increased, he said.

Wes O’Neal, a manager at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 804 Mass., said warm weather has kept sales brisk in the bicycle shop, but slowed business in coats and other heavy-duty outerwear.

There have been steady sales in hats and gloves on days when the temperature plummets, as it did in early December, O’Neal said.

The possible winter storm this weekend hasn’t caused anyone to go running to the hardware store in search of supplies or out to Sunflower seeking a heavy coat.

“If they’re forecasting something major, or if it’s really coming down, then we’ll see a tremendous increase in our business. I haven’t seen much of a change today,” Groundwater said Thursday.