photo by: Chris Conde

A snowy Kansas Turnpike exit in North Lawrence is pictured on Jan. 15, 2022. A winter storm blanketed Douglas County with 2 to 4 inches of snow overnight, leaving highways partially snowpacked.

A winter storm dropped 2 to 4 inches of snow in the Lawrence area on Friday night and Saturday morning, but temperatures are expected to climb back above freezing on Sunday, according to meteorologists with the National Weather Service office in Topeka.

Meteorologist Bryan Baerg said that as of Saturday afternoon, there was no snowfall report yet from the weather service’s official monitoring station at Lawrence Municipal Airport. However, he said there were consistent reports throughout northeast Kansas east of U.S. Highway 75 of 2 to 4 inches of snow, and that the Topeka station recorded 3 inches.

Baerg said there were sustained wind speeds of 20 to 25 mph with gusts into the lower 30s during the winter storm. Another meteorologist with the weather service, Matt Wolters, said the wind made it difficult to tell how much snow had accumulated.

“The wind blew the storm around so much it’s really hard to get an accurate measurement,” Wolters said. “With the wind blowing out of the north like that, you tend to get bare spots and big spots. So you have to go out there and make multiple measurements and come up with an average.”

The wind also created drifting conditions that made roads hazardous.

On Saturday morning, Lawrence Police Department spokesman David Ernst said there was not a “noteworthy” increase in traffic accidents. Deputies with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office did respond to several minor weather-related accidents throughout the county, spokesman George Diepenbrock said late Saturday afternoon.

“Sheriff’s Office deputies have responded to eight non-injury accidents and a few motorist assist calls that were slide-offs or appeared to be weather related,” Diepenbrock said in an email to the Journal-World.

The Kansas Department of Transportation’s 511 road condition line also reported that sections of U.S. Highways 24 and 59, Kansas Highway 10 and Interstate 70 were icy or snowpacked as of late Saturday afternoon.

One thing drivers didn’t have to deal with was sleet. Baerg said that although the storm started with light rain, it transitioned quickly to snow.

Temperatures were expected to fall as low as 10 degrees on Saturday night, but the week ahead looks milder. Baerg said the forecast called for temperatures to rebound on Sunday, with a high of nearly 40 degrees. Monday and Tuesday are expected to have highs in the 40s and 50s, he said, and although another cold front is expected to visit northeast Kansas on Wednesday, he said it wouldn’t bring any more snow.