The good news for the Lawrence area is that the ice and sleet of New Year’s Day morning has moved on. The bad news is that snow is expected throughout the afternoon and cold temperatures backed by wicked winds will drive wind chill readings to deadly levels.

Brandon Drake, meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Topeka, said the sleet that made driving conditions hazardous throughout the area gave way late Saturday morning to snow. The snow will continue through the afternoon with about 2 inches of accumulation predicted.

“It’s not a huge amount of snow,” he said. “The bigger story is the cold air.”

The cold temperatures that blew in on New Year’s Day after a mild December will send overnight temperatures to the single digits. There will be winds of 10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph, and the wind chill will fall to as low as 10 to 20 below zero, Drake said. The high on Sunday will be about 17, but there won’t be as much wind.

There will be a slight warming trend after that, with highs in the upper 30s predicted for Monday and highs in the 40s on Tuesday. But more frigid air is expected to move in on Wednesday. Temperatures for Wednesday night and Thursday will be near 0 and windchills again will dip to 10 to 15 below. Drake said that system will bring little to no snow.