Here we go again! If this winter hasn’t been brutal enough, we will have to brace ourselves for TWO more rounds of winter weather.

The first is expected to come in overnight Thursday and into the daytime hours on Friday. Temperatures with this initial batch of moisture will likely bring us rain that with switch over to snow by Friday morning. That means that your morning commute will likely be more on the wet side than anything. We can’t rule out a slushy snow pack for your evening commute. Early indications for us show that we will generally see less than 1 inch of total snow by Friday evening. The fact that we are coming off of a day near 50° plays a big factor in the amount of accumulation we pick up. Ground temperatures will first have to cool before we pick up significant accumulation. That doesn’t mean there won’t be slick spots for your morning and evening commute, but limits some of the snow that piles up.

With that said, Lawrence city crews have sent out a press release stating that maintenance crews will begin treating roads with sand and salt. The city’s operations guide and map of priority routes are available online.

While that remains the immediate concern, we also need to keep an eye on the next storm that is slated to move in for Sunday. This storm looks to have a little more punch than Friday’s storm. Some models are pushing totals to the extreme. I don’t think that we will see Christmas Eve proportions from this storm, but we could be in line to see more significant accumulations when this come through for Sunday afternoon. Early prediction numbers for me are in line of 2-5 inches, although my confidence in that is still as shaky as the models that are coming in. Some of those models are putting total accumulation MUCH higher.

Stay tuned and we will keep you informed as these two storms continue to evolve!