Ha! I remember when this happened. Because I was unemployed at the time, I was one of the lucky few who wasn’t out and about that day. So I got the chance to watch all the news coverage that afternoon and evening. I know a number of people who were stuck on I-40 for several hours straight, and they all said it was an unpleasant time. As I vaguely recall, a number of people ran out of gas and had to leave their cars on the roads for several days. It’s amazing how much we rely on the principle of friction for our everyday driving purposes.

OMG THAT WAS SO BAD
I was downtown because i go to school there, and it was horrible. It took us easily two hours for us to get from moore square to the beltline, and then after that, it took us five hours to get the rest of the way home.
7 hours for a 20 min trip.
We almost stayed at the red roof inn (and that place is SKETCHY)

Ha I remember that day that was the first and only snow I got to see while I lived in Raleigh. It liked paralyzed the city and it was not even that much, but I guess the ice really did most the damage.

It took me 3 hours to get from Downtown (state government complex) to my home, near Falls Village (near Sandy Forks Rd and Falls of Neuse Rd). I know that we all wondered how in the earth that happened, but it was more complicated than just everyone leaving at the same time. In fact, where there was traffic the roads were a little better, but once you drove on the less used streets… forget about it. How many times I got close to an accident I can’t recall Hopefully, we’ll never see another day like that.

I was lucky at the time to be able to walk to work and back. I couldn’t believe how fast it was all going down. I remember walking back home that day and being worried that cars were going to hit me. I made sure all cars were stopped before I attempted to cross the road. I remember that Western Blvd was a parking lot.

I hate icy roads. Snow isn’t bad as long as people around you don’t drive stupid.

I remember that day very well . . . I work at NC State, and that day it took me 90 minutes to drive from main campus to Centennial Campus – normally a five minute commute. I was detoured several times trying to avoid traffic on Hillsborough Street, ended up downtown, and managed my way down Lake Wheeler to the Parkway.

Wow, what can I say about that day. I was unemployed, my g/f got off work and I drove from RBC center to North Raleigh to pick her up. I tried going down Ebenezer Chruch Rd figuring less traffic and confident in my 4 wheel drive. However there was an overturned chemical truck. After 3hrs of backroading to avoid challenges and brief stop at Wellspring . I picked her up and we rolled back only 1 hr and a half–Used my brain for a better route back home. Then we got sloppy drunk and realized this would all be gone tommorow.

We are planning a move to Raleigh from LA, California in the next few months. Ok, I have to admit, this scares me a little, being someone who’s nevre driven in snow, but I have to ask…do all major cities, ie: NY, Chicago, have the same kinds of problems that happened that day in Raleigh? Finally….SNOW for the holidays has been one of my major selling points to my children about this move. Are you all telling me it almost never snows there?? I thought you got several light dustings a year?? Admittedly, even a change of leaf color in the fall will be a welcome change for us, but we were looking forward to a little tiny bit of white stuff occassionally. Thanks!

Red – We are lucky if we get a little snow in Raleigh during the course of the winter. There are exceptions of course, but even flurries in the forecast can send people out to the stores to get the necessities like bread and water or even close and delay schools. Every few years Raleigh will get a decent accumulation, but thats a major event around here.

In February of 2000 however, during my first year living here (originally from Western PA of course), we received a record of 22 inches in about 24 hours. The city was shut down for a week with the temperatures remaining below freezing.

Many cities in the northeast and areas in which snow is common do not encounter this problem due the the abundance of equipment for road salting and plowing. January of ‘05 was a “perfect storm” of sorts because the timing and its unexpectedness.

I few into Raleigh this day. Were I did land before the snow fall the trip to Clayton there after took longer than I could have ever imagined. We ended up in a ditch (I wasn’t driving) about a 1/2 mile from my gf’s home. I walked the rest of the day and the next day pulled the car out of the ditch. Oh what fun!

This happens in Charlotte too

The sound of that truck tire needs to be sampled and used in a superfunky mixmaster DJ song.

Was that seriously all ice? I live in Michigan and a half inch of snow I would be trecking 80mph through that

And as a helpful reminder – you do not floor it…my favorite part in the third video was the truck flooring it for what a couple minutes while another car just zips right on by

I’d love to see you people survive in Michigan where we just had about 30 inches of snow in 2 weeks with a blizzard on top of it. hehehe

Yes, it was 95% ice. Started as freezing rain, followed by sleet, followed by a freezing rain/snow mix. I’ve lived in NC for 35 years, and that’s the 2nd or 3rd storm I remember like that–but it was the WORST traffic nightmare. The temp unexpectedly dropped like a rock, so no one was prepared for ice. We don’t have dedicated snow moving equipment, so all the dumptrucks had to be brought in from whatever job they were doing, get rid of their existing load, get fitted with scrapers and spreaders, and then load up on salt/sand/brine before they could be sent out. The schools let out a little before noon, so the streets were jammed with busses and parents leaving work early to pick up their kids. I know one guy who was on the road from 1pm to 3am getting his child from school to home–normally a 30 minute affair.

I’m glad someone put to rest the “snow” myth (Grover). That day was all about ice all over the roads. I’ve lived in Raleigh my entire life. We’ve had much more snow (up to a foot on rare occasions) and have never had problems like that. Everyone kept making jokes about people in Raleigh not being able to drive in the snow, but no one can drive effectively on ice without proper equipment. The other aspect that ticked me off is that many people from up north complained about NC drivers in the “snow”. Well, I can assure you that at least half of the people living in the area are transplants from up north and they also suddenly seemed to forget how to drive in the “snow”! Not long after that, I saw a national news story about an ice storm up north and it showed “expert” northern drivers sliding all over the place. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

[...] Erection reminded us of the January 2005 snowfall that brought the Triangle to a halt by linking to RaleighSkyline.com, which had some archived footage of that infamous snow [...]

i live in ny and yuz guys are rubbernecks. what gives?? frank rizzo would never put up with that kind of crap.

That day I was out with my mother and brother at the old BORDERS Bookstore on Wake Forest Road in North Raleigh. It’s not a BORDERS anymore, it’s a pet store. Anyway, we’d been in there for about an hour when I happened to look outside and I saw snow start to fall. I told my mom and we hi-tailed it back to I-440. Even though the roads had barely started icing over, we were forced to do 45 to 55 MPH rather than the usual 65 to 75 MPH. We then hopped 40 -> 70 back into Johnston County.

Man, that was 4 years ago tomorrow, wasn’t it? And what did we get today to commemorate it? SNOW! You just know the roads are going to be a mess tomorrow morning. But all I remember about coming home that night is that it took over SIX hours to drive a whole 12 miles! That was such a joke.

I had to pick up my daughter from school – Millbrook Elementary – and drive back to the apartment off of Spring Forest/Falls of the Neuse. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get to her – normally a 10 minute drive. We turned up the Sir Mix Alot on the way home but eventually had to pull over and park since no one could make it up the hills and stalled out right in the road. I am glad I went to get her though because a lot of kids had to spend the night at schools that were ill-equipped. The kids of my neighbors got home on the bus at 10 o’clock at night! What a nightmare that was. Now it’s Dec 2009 and Orange County schools are releasing kids early tomorrow to avoid a similiar mishap. Hope that doesn’t jinx the arrival of snow!

A song by Sammy Hagar comes to mind when I watch these videos and remember the 3 long hours it took me to get home (instead of 20 minutes): “I can’t drive 55…”

[...] preparing early by checking on my car winter basket (assembled after I was stuck for 9 hours in the famous Raleigh Ice storm several years ago), checking the kids boot sizes and some form of snow [...]

Luckily that was my day off. I remember it well as a Wednesday. I got the call from a neighbor that my daughters school was closing at noon. Luckily once again, it was 1 mile from my home. After picking her up we watched the news all day and night and spoke with many friends who were stuck in this mess. Happy 5th anniversary for the “Raleigh Gridlock of 2005″