photo by: Nick Krug

Lawrence trees show off their fall foliage in this file photo from Oct. 15, 2012.

Autumn weather in the Lawrence area is on its way.

With an overnight cold front and a possible thunderstorm, temperatures in the area are expected to drop from the low 90s to the mid-70s on Friday, said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka.

“The greatest potential for strong to severe storms is across north-central Kansas,” Cohen said on Thursday. “However, when the boundary comes through later this evening, the combination of the nighttime cooling along with the decaying nature of the thunderstorm, we expect the threat to lessen as the activity spreads across northeast Kansas.”

Lawrence has a 70 percent chance of rain overnight.

The temperatures are expected to hover in the 70s through next week. The drop in temperature coincidentally mirrors the changing of seasons, with fall officially beginning on Saturday.

“As we head through the very late summer to the fall, it’s these episodes of cooler air that usually are preceded by the passage of a cold front as that cooler and dryer air mass overspreads the region of relatively warmer and humid air as we switch seasons,” Cohen said.