(Myajc) - Mention Snowpocalypse and anyone who lived in Atlanta in January 2014 will have a highly personal story to tell. Like being stuck for hours and hours on the highway, or abandoning their car and trudging miles home, or maybe not even getting home but instead taking refuge for the night on the floor of a Home Depot.

It was traumatic and something not easily forgotten.

Similarly, folk who reside in Northern California wine country have vivid recollections of the devastating fires from October, when flames swept through the region, singeing vineyards, burning buildings, displacing thousands of people and killing more than 40.