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Today is the 20th anniversary of the 2002 devastating ice event

This was definitely the benchmark for ice storms in my area. It was made worse by the fact that it had been a fairly mild fall and there were still a lot of leaves on the trees. This one shows just how serious a ZR event can be when you have a high pressure holding in place for the duration continuously feeding in cold air. When precip started at my house on the afternoon of the 4th it was 29 degrees. It wet bulbed down to 25 and then held steady between 25-28 for the rest of the storm.
 
The 2002 ice storm caused more damage than any tropical storm or hurricane ever did to my yard and neighborhood. I still remember the smell of pine in the area where I lived from all of the damage to the pine trees. I had a friend tried to go deer hunting that day believe it or not and told me that he knew it was time to call it a day when the limbs and trees around him started snapping. That would qualify as a hold my beer moment I do believe. I hope I never live through another storm like that.
 
Yes. I remember it well. My oldest son was 3 at the time and I remember we moved to a room where we didn’t think a tree would fall on us. The sounds of the trees snapping in the woods behind us was a very eerie sound. The next day it truthfully looked apocalyptic. Power poles on top of one another. I remember they dubbed it “Fran on Ice”. I’m fact this ice storm finished off the trees that Fran didn’t totally destroy.


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That day was magical and terrifying at the same time. Almost sprained my arm going down a hill on a steel runner. Best sledding day ever though. Heard trees falling all night into the morning. The pictures would have been amazing using today's technology.
 
Awesome storm! The day before it was like 62 degrees at GSP. So much for ground temp arguments! Had accumulating sleet about 18 hours later! Thankfully, there was a lot mor sleet than forecasted, or what was already bad, could have been apocalyptic! Never saw one snowflake In Greenville, started as sleet and ZR from the jump!
 
Itryatgolf said:
I went through icestorm 1994 Feb. There was literally 5-6 inches ice accretion and south of us was 7-8??‍?
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That was a big storm for the NC Piedmont as well… the last of 3 major ice storms that winter. The ice accrual from it was held in check some due to the amount of sleet that fell. What was the most impressive thing was the temperature drop. KCLT was at 76 degrees at 5pm one day and then exactly 24 hours later had fallen to 27 with heavy sleet falling.
 
I lost a bunch of trees (some actually uprooted from the ice weight), half our fences, and our car (tree fell on it). I called the insurance company and told them what happened. They never sent an agent to verify. They just sent me a check.
 
FallsLake said:
I lost a bunch of trees (some actually uprooted from the ice weight), half our fences, and our car (tree fell on it). I called the insurance company and told them what happened. They never sent an agent to verify. They just sent me a check.
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My parents had a tree fall on their car during the storm as well. The bad part was is that it came from a tree that Duke Energy had trimmed off one side of several months earlier, so the weight was all tilted to one side
 
Started out as a snowstorm on the front end in my area and ended up with 4 inches of snow and then went over to heavy sleet for the most of the storm accumulating around 3 inches of sleet topped off with a good 1/2 to 3/4 inch of ZR rain on top of everything. I think the snow on the front end saved this area from being a completely devastating ice storm around here. I was out of power for 5-7 days if I remember correctly. Trees down everywhere. Pine forest across the road looked like a hurricane had came through. It was a memorable one for sure.
 
Itryatgolf said:
I went through icestorm 1994 Feb. There was literally 5-6 inches ice accretion and south of us was 7-8??‍?
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Pretty similar here. Feb 94 I ended up with the heaviest sleet storm ice storm I ever seen in my life out of that one. I have never seen before or after the intensity and consistency of that much sleet. I loved it. I could hear the pingers all day and night on my bedroom window. Man I want to hear that sound again. We ended up with 6-8 inches of sleet similar to your area and everything was a skating rink around here for the next two weeks. Never seen that much ice accretion in my life.
 
Itryatgolf said:
I went through icestorm 1994 Feb. There was literally 5-6 inches ice accretion and south of us was 7-8??‍?
Click to expand...
I lived in Taft, Tennessee at the time. It truly was unreal. We were in the country and the neighbors across from us had a big cattle and horse barn. My family and others on the street spent the days that the power was out in the barn (it was so warm from the animals. ). Sure gives a new perspective on things.
 
I was only 12 at the time but remember it well. Dismissed from school at lunchtime and it was complete chaos. Heavy sleet falling and already making roads slick. It quickly transitioned to freezing rain and I remember the back deck at my parent's house having a thick coating of ice by that evening. I was awoken by the sounds of limbs falling and transformers blowing in the middle of the night, then the lights went out and didn't come back on for a week. Living in a house now with a huge oak tree hanging over it, I hope to never see an ice storm like that one again.
 
I was stuck at home with a 6 year old and a 4 year old while my husband was safe and warm at Fort Bragg, mobilized ahead of eventual deployment to Iraq. The kids and I will never forget that storm. No power for 10 days. Eventually drove the kids to a part of Greensboro that had power and we waited in line for 45 minutes for breakfast at McDonald's. Thank goodness the gas logs worked and we had a sleeper sofa beside the fireplace.
 
lcpdk said:
I was stuck at home with a 6 year old and a 4 year old while my husband was safe and warm at Fort Bragg, mobilized ahead of eventual deployment to Iraq. The kids and I will never forget that storm. No power for 10 days. Eventually drove the kids to a part of Greensboro that had power and we waited in line for 45 minutes for breakfast at McDonald's. Thank goodness the gas logs worked and we had a sleeper sofa beside the fireplace.
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That storm was what convinced to go and buy gas logs and I’ve had them ever since.
 
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