Yeah, sure that's the only reason. Not the fact it rained 30 inches over 5-6k ft peaks with gusts of over 80 mph leading to hundreds of landslides, some of them miles long. Helene flooded plenty of areas outside of flood plains.
Driving from Marion to Asheville was white knuckle for sure. Bad accident in Buncombe and a sheet of water coming down Old Fort mountain. Each time they pave the interstate and redo the center barrier. it does nothing to help with drainage. One of the worst places to hydroplane in the middle of a curve coming down a steep mountain...
I missed 2009 in college in VA Beach, but it was the first 12"+ snow in greater McDowell since Jan 96.
It's been 7 years since our last 12" snow. 2022 was close but not quite.
Honestly a lot of our best snows the past 20 years have been before or near Christmas storms.
2009 big storm area wide 10-16"
2010 Christmas snow are wide 6-12"
2017 overrunning snow area wide 4-8"
2018 big storm area wide 10-16"
And by area wide I mean WNC
Models are waffling about how much rain will fall Monday-Wednesday of next week. They are starting to trend further south with the initial upper low leaving some areas mostly dry Monday-Tuesday
Traditionally, I live in one of the coldest areas in McDowell during ideal radiational cooling night. I'm close to the Catawba river and sheltered by mountains to my south.
My 5 year old barely knows what snow is. I would love to see a graphic/map that shows the difference between actual and average snowfall for the east coast. Most of western NC/SC has to be one of the biggest losers since 2019.