Guides · Weather
Ice, not snow, is the winter problem here
The Piedmont gets a few genuine ice events a year, and a car on open ground has no answer to any of them.
North Carolina does not get the snowfall people from further north expect. What it gets, two or three times most winters, is freezing rain, and that is a worse problem for a parked car.
Why ice is different
Snow brushes off. A sheet of freezing rain bonds to glass, seals the door rubbers and coats the locks. Clearing a car after a real ice event takes fifteen to twenty five minutes with a scraper you probably did not pack, and it happens at the exact moment you have landed, are tired and want to go home.
Two or three times a winter is not often. It is often enough that it is worth knowing which side of the bet you are on before you leave the car for a week in January.
What the deck actually saves
Everything about the above. A covered level means the car is dry, the doors open, and you leave the lot at once.
It costs about four dollars a day more than the fenced surface lot. For a week in January that is twenty eight dollars against a decent chance of a very unpleasant twenty minutes.
For departures in December, January and February the desk will usually mention it. You are free to say no, and plenty of people do.
If a storm lands while you are away
Nothing you need to do, and nothing anyone can do for you. Operators do not de-ice individual cars, and you should be suspicious of one that says it will.
What you can do is keep a scraper in the door pocket rather than the boot, where it is under the suitcase you will not want to move at midnight. That single habit has saved more time than any advice on this site.
Road conditions on the day
Freezing rain closes roads around here occasionally, and the desk would rather hear at seven in the morning that you cannot get out of your street than have you not arrive.
A closed road between you and the lot means no charge at all. It is written into the cancellation policy and there is nothing to argue about.
The rest of the winter
Ordinary. Cold, grey, and entirely unremarkable to park in. This note exists for a handful of days a year, not for the season.