I recently moved back to Seattle after spending 7 years in Atlanta. I learned that one of the reasons that Atlanta freaks out so much when it does snow (e.g. store shelves empty) is the blizzard of 1993 (I believe it was March). This storm was so large, it got its own documentary on the Discovery channel (which I saw) a few years back. The storm spawned dozens of tornadoes in Florida and snow and ice from Georgia to Maine. The reason for all the panicking when it does snow in Atlanta is the weather people at the news channels either downplayed the probable snowfall in that storm or incorreclty predicted the weather. Whatever the case, lots of people in the metro area were left without food and supplies for several days. I saw video footage of a news reporter downtown near Underground Atlanta with a foot of snow on the ground and having a very tough time standing up because of the high winds. More people died in that storm not from the elements, but from heart attacks associated with shoveling snow (believe it or not). Maybe the Atlanta natives can comment?