From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 27, 1988:

• A noisy winter thunderstorm had broken a dry spell for the Lawrence area the previous day. The city officially received .54 of an inch of rain, according to the Kansas University weather service. It was the first significant precipitation to fall on the city this month. Lawrence was about a foot behind on moisture for the year. Local farmer were a bit worried about the dry weather that had been prevalent for months. Lyman Kirk, who had been farming for 65 years, said the recent rains hadn’t been enough to make up for the prolonged drought of the summer and fall. Jack Lindquist, Douglas County agriculture extension agent, agreed, saying that the area was “probably drier now than we were during the hottest part of the summer drought.”
• Customers of The Bank of Kansas/Lawrence were able to conduct business today at the drive-up and walk-up teller windows at the bank’s main office, 955 Iowa, while cleanup and repair efforts continued after an early-morning fire. The fire, which had apparently started in a corner of a basement room, had been discovered by Lawrence police officers who had been checking alarms set off by a thunderstorm.