I've lived in the Southeast over half of my life already! 25 years.
At first, I lived in in Georgia for 12 years, there was a few winter storms.
Then I love to eastern North Carolina near the coastal region. There were altogether 3 to five winter storms, either ice or snow, in 13 years. The storms were very light, much lighter than the major hurricanes we had. I don't like snowing and I'm glad there's no severe winter storms here where I live.
Hopefully someday it will turn into a real subtropical climate, from zone 8b to zone 9, so that we can have lemon trees in the ground too, like in the neighboring states SC and FL. My friend's parents live in Jacksonville, FL and they have huge, huge lemons from their own yard. No snow, no, no, no. It'll kill the nice tropical plants and fruits.