Tom Ewing, an employee with Nebraska Furniture Mart, left, delivers a chair to a downtown business while passers-by shield themselves against the snow and cold Friday.

It finally may start to look like – and more importantly, feel like – spring.

The season of sunshine and flower blossoms is less than two weeks away, but Mother Nature seemed to be taunting Lawrence with a late winter snow Friday and near-record frigid temperatures this morning.

But warmer days are in sight, at least after this morning.

“Our extended forecast has a wonderful warming trend,” said Sarah Jones, 6News meteorologist.

However, Jones said, Lawrence will be close to the coldest morning temperature on record today about sunrise.

The temperature this morning was expected to be 9 degrees; the 1996 record was 0 degrees.

Despite the frigid start, today’s high is expected to reach 40 degrees. The temperature will continue to increase, reaching the mid-50s by late next week, Jones said.

“We should be back at (March) average and above-average temperatures by Monday,” Jones said. “It’s going to warm quickly.”

She said it’s not unusual to see snow in March, though Friday’s snowfall wasn’t even traceable.

“Some people will remember in mid-April we had a rain snow mix,” Jones said of last year. “That’s pretty late to see snow falling.”

Precipitation totals so far this winter have been high. Lawrence has had 7.53 inches of precipitation, which includes melted snowfall, compared with an average of 1.24 inches. This year alone, Lawrence has had 4.46 inches, compared with an average of 2.91 inches by this time.

So far, 23 inches of snow has fallen this winter, more than the last two winters’ snowfall combined.

In the midst of Friday’s snow, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms may be far from people’s minds. Yet the Kansas Adjutant General’s department urged Kansans to prepare now for the severe weather that begins in the spring.

Next week is Severe Weather Awareness Week. Several state agencies including the National Weather Service and Kansas Division of Emergency Management will put on events designed make the public more aware and prepared for severe storms.

In 2007, Kansas was hit by a 137 tornadoes, a record-breaking number, according to the adjutant general’s department.

A statewide tornado drill be conducted Tuesday.