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Fire & Ice: In February 2014, snow summoned flames and launched memes in Raleigh

Of the thousands of snow photos taken in North Carolina, one of the most talked about and shared shots came from a Raleigh woman who captured the chaos on Glenwood Avenue on Feb. 12, 2014.

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'Oh my gosh!' Raleigh woman's snow photo goes viral
RALEIGH, N.C. — Of all the snow photos taken in North Carolina history, one of the most talked about and shared shots came from a Raleigh woman who captured the chaos on Glenwood Avenue on Feb. 12, 2014, a day sometimes referred to as the Raleigh 'snowpocalypse.'

Let's set the scene: Many main roads were impassable in the Triangle and flights at Raleigh-Durham International Airport were canceled that day. The snow started falling around noon in the Triangle and accumulated quickly, at a rate of about an inch per hour. Raleigh had seen snow before, but not quite like this.

A timeline of events during a hectic snow event in Raleigh back in February of 2014.

Schools dismissed and people left work early in hopes of getting home before conditions worsened. Many drivers hit the road at the same time. This led to a traffic nightmare. Additionally, a pocket of warm air moved in from the coast in the upper-levels of the atmosphere. This allowed the snow to transition from sleet to freezing rain around 4:30 p.m.

"We had several inches of snow and then a glaze of ice on top of the snow," said WRAL meteorologist Aimee Wilmoth. "If you were on the roads that afternoon, you will never forget it."

The 'snowpocalypse' of February 2014 was a memorable weather event for a multitude of reasons.
The Duke-North Carolina basketball game, scheduled for that night, was postponed as Duke's bus couldn't arrive to campus in time to take the team to Chapel Hill.

The event was best encapsulated through one memorable photo, which shows a car on fire as vehicles struggle nearby to get up a snow-slicked hill on Glenwood Avenue. It quickly spread across the Internet and was featured on several sites, including CNN, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Slate and Reddit.

Lindsay Webb of Raleigh shot this picture of the chaos on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh on Feb. 13, 2014. (Photo courtesy of Lindsay Webb)

'Oh my gosh!'

“This morning, I turn on the news, and I’m watching CNN, and my photo came up, and I’m like, 'Oh my gosh!'" said Lindsay Webb, who shot the picture with her iPhone and says the photo is 100 percent authentic.

Webb, who worked as a stylist at Blo salon at Brier Creek, says she had been in the car for three hours with a stranger who asked for a ride when she took the picture.

“As soon as we got on top of the hill, we could see the conditions. So many of the cars were off the road. People were trying to weave their way up the hill, people were getting out and pushing other people’s cars or just walking around," she said.

“People were trying to push it, and the wheels were spinning. Then, smoke started to come from the hood. At first, you’re thinking, 'Well, that car’s not going anywhere.' But then the hood lit up, and it was no time before that car was on fire,” she added.

About that time, Webb says, her boss contacted her to see if she made it home safely.

'A car just blew up in front of me'

“I said, 'No, I’m sitting in front of Angus Barn, and a car just blew up in front of me.' And then I sent him the picture,'" she said.

Her boss then shared the photo, and it took off in ways Webb never expected. She even received calls from a news outlet in Berlin, Germany, that wanted to know if she shot any video of the scene.

“In the moment, you’re not thinking about newsworthy. You’re just, 'What in the world?'" she said.

Webb says she didn't know the identity of the woman on the phone in the foreground in her picture. WRAL News found the mystery woman, Michelle Everest of Raleigh, who says she didn't know about the photo's existence until the next morning.

"That's funny, like I'm 007," she said, laughing at her appearance in the ominous photo.

Everest says she was stuck on Glenwood for four-and-a-half hours and was talking to a friend on the phone when the photo was snapped.

"I was walking back to the car and telling her, 'I'm getting back to the car (to) make sure I'm not blocking anything,'" she said.

Everest said she hates having her picture taken but has enjoyed seeing how the photo has spread.

For those who doubt the authenticity of the picture, Webb says she wants to assure people that it's real. "I didn’t Photoshop any of it," she said. "I was there. I took it with my iPhone."

Attack of the memes

The photo also spawned numerous memes online and took on new life in the digital realm. The most famous edit was one of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters appearing to incite terror upon Raleigh.

Another popular meme showed John Candy's character from National Lampoon's Vacation - Russ Lasky - holding his hand up saying 'sorry folks, North Carolina is closed.' One meme featured the abominable snowman.

Although the snow brought several North Carolina cities to a standstill, being a short-lived social media sensation was of some solace for Raleigh.

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