Ice Storm in North Carolina, February 2 to 3, 1996

Please Note...this description applies to all central North Carolina counties during the February 2 and 3 Ice Storm.Freezing rain spread across central North Carolina during the early morning hours of the 2nd. The freezing rain tapered off during the late afternoon but another round of heavy freezing rain and sleet moved back over central sections of the state during the evening of the 2nd and continued until around daybreak on the 3rd.Freezing rain accumulated on trees and power lines, causing numerous trees to fall. Power was disrupted to over 300,000 homes with the most extensive outages in the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill areas, extending west to Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Up to 1 inch of glaze accumulated on exposed objects. To the south of this region, from Stanly and Anson counties, eastward to Fayetteville, Clinton and Goldsboro, glaze accumulated between 1/4 and 3/4 of an inch. As even colder air moved into the storm area during the evening of the 2nd, the freezing rain changed to sleet. Sleet accumulations averaged 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The sleet caused travel to come to a stand still. There were several traffic deaths and injuries. The storm clean-up costs for the city of Raleigh totaled $175,000 alone. Estimated costs for the storm area totaled over one million dollars.