Wormdiet wrote:In a mild defense of the grocery-snagging madness, occasionally we do get weather here in west-central NC that actually does justfiiy stocking up. Not snow, not hurricanes, but ICE. We had a storm that legitimately closed roads for two or three days. It's a lot more dangerous than just snow.
This is true, and it is a problem for many people, whom I will diplomatically
call "relocated Northerners" (rather than the less politic "Damn Yankee
Transplants" that some folks around these parts prefer). Our asphalt
tends to soak up heat all the time, including during winter, and release
it into new fallen snow, thus melting said snow into water, which then
refreezes. Often we end up with a layer of Ice under snow, or even
worse,
black ice, which is ice so glassy that the black road shows
through, rendering the ice indistinguishable from the rest of the road.
Anyway, many newcomers aren't used to this and assume they can
drive on the snow like they could back home, which often isn't the case.
And then the actual ice and freezing rain storms that Wormdiet mentions.
That stuff brought down power lines just from the weight of the ice
accumulation.