photo by: City of Lawrence

A City of Lawrence snow plow makes its way past City Hall on Sixth Street around 8 a.m. Friday, Jan. 1, 2021.

The new year started with a recent rarity as a winter storm brought moisture to the Lawrence area in the form of snow and sleet.

Jenni Pittman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Topeka, said sleet began falling in the Lawrence area about 3 a.m. and switched to snow about 7 a.m. By 3:30 p.m., the National Weather Service had received reports from central Lawrence of 4 inches of snow, forecaster Kyle Poage said.

Lawrence motorists apparently handled the holiday snow storm well. A dispatcher with Douglas County emergency dispatch said there had been no accidents reported in the city as of 10 a.m.

The storm was somewhat milder than forecast, with the Lawrence area receiving sleet on the storm’s leading edge instead of the icy rain that fell in the Kansas City area, Pittman said. Northwest winds were also not as strong as forecast, with sustained winds Friday of 10 to 15 mph and occasional gusts of 30 mph. Wind speeds are forecast to increase Friday afternoon. Drifting should not be a problem because of the wet nature of the snow, however the winds were strong enough to cause visibility problems for motorists, she said.

Pittman predicted the storm would bring about 0.20 inches of total moisture to Lawrence. Lawrence finished 2020 with about 6 inches less than its 38.55 inches of average annual rainfall, she said. Most of that shortfall occurred in the last four months of the year, she said.

There is no more snow in the forecast after the storm clears the area Friday afternoon, Pittman said. Saturday will be cold with highs in the 30s before a warming trend starts Sunday with sunshine and highs in the upper 30s and then 40s on Monday, Pittman said. Highs could reach the lower 50s near the end of next week, she said.