Life-long Michigander (and weather-geek) who drove through the north end of that mess on Tuesday. I knew when the storm was supposed to hit because I checked the NWS website; so we camped N of Macon, and left early in the AM to be out of GA by noon. We also watched a local forecast - and the weatherman was saying that the rogue band of snow that was farther north than anyone expected was producing snow - but it "wasn't hitting the ground". I found that odd, because rain can evaporate (Virga) but snow??
Contrary to the weatherman's advice, by Adairsville, the snow was indeed hitting the ground, and turning to glare ice. Kudos to the folks who were sharing the highway with us - they were driving slowly and sensibly for the (awful) conditions. It took forever, at 2 mph, to finally reach the Tennessee line, where we could finally drive at highway speeds again.
So what was the difference?? Tennessee said "Snow coming? Let's get some salt on those roads" Georgia must have been hoping it would melt - because we SAW the GDOT salt trucks trying to salt the roads about an hour AFTER everyone starting sliding and crashing on black ice.....
I suspect this is Georgia's routine response to snow: pray it melts. But the air temps were in the mid-20's; most folks would understand that nothing melts at those temps
