Just after Valentine's Day in 1987, most of North Carolina was hit with a massive winter storm. Across central North Carolina, a lot of that wintry precipitation fell as sleet.

This week marks the 35th anniversary of this event.

What You Need To Know

  • The winter storm impacted most of North Carolina

  • Much of central North Carolina received several inches of sleet

  • The weight of the ice caused roofs to collapse

North Carolina saw multiple winter weather events during the winter of 1987. Most had their greatest impacts in the western parts of the state, but the mid-February storm was the most impactful winter weather system of the season for central North Carolina.

Areas in the western parts of the state saw mainly snow on Feb. 16 and 17, but sleet was the primary wintry precipitation type across much of central and parts of eastern North Carolina.

Sleet occurs when snow falls through a layer of warm air on its way to the ground. The melted snowflakes then fall through another layer of cold air that's at or below freezing. If that layer of cold air is thick enough, the liquid refreezes into ice pellets that we call sleet. This video explains it further.

Some of the greatest impacts from the sleet accumulation were seen across the Triangle. The highest sleet totals ran across parts of Orange, Durham, Wake and Harnett Counties. Many locations reported anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of sleet accumulation. In some areas, it took the sleet almost a week to melt.

The wintry precipitation caused the usual transportation issues around the state, but the areas that received the sleet had greater issues since sleet removal is a little more difficult than pushing snow off roadways.

The main problem with the sleet wasn't with transportation. It was with weight. With so much accumulation, the weight of the sleet caused roofs and carports to collapse.

From roughly I-95 into the Coastal Plain, freezing rain mixed in with the sleet and caused numerous power outages, also causing widespread damage to the power grid. Some areas were without power for days.

In the northwestern parts of North Carolina, many areas picked up 4 to 6 inches of snow.

The least-impacted areas of the state from the storm were extreme western North Carolina and the eastern Coastal Plain, where they saw little to no wintry precipitation.

North Carolina's agricultural industry was hit hard by the storm as well. Up to 5 million dollars of damage to crops was reported across the state with high losses to farm animals due to roof collapses, which also damaged farm equipment.

Overall, the "ice storm" of February 1987 remains one of the biggest ice events for central North Carolina in recent history. It wasn't because of freezing rain, which is the usual for an ice storm, but because of the high amounts of sleet. Sleet events to this magnitude are fairly rare in North Carolina.