Ozark Winter Thunderstorm

Deep unplowed snow pellets. Bursts of thunder and lightning. Downpours of rain on snow. Ice crusted wipers. Yesterday was an exhilarating experience. I bought a new car, a 2005 AWD Subaru Outback Sport, and have been conducting an involuntary evaluation of the car's capabilities in adverse weather. It doesn't snow often this far south in Missouri but this was the second snowstorm in 11 days and I ended up driving through both.
The first time my car handled exceptionally well on the slick, curvy, hilly Ozark backroads. Progress was thwarted 10 minutes from home, the final hill after crossing the Eleven Point river a tanker truck had slid sideways and across both lanes. The Oregon County sheriff informed me that "gonna be 2-3 hawers 'fore we gets this mess cleaned up, got a rig comin' from damn near Cabool." We turned around, crossed the bridge and went to the next most viable road across the river. That cost us over an hour when we were so close to home!
Yesterday the roads were more intense. Another truck had troubles heading up a hill and I was asked to wait when the plow I was following stopped to help. Everything continued to be okay until it wasn't and then it's usually too late. Approaching the current river I saw a large sky to ground lightning bolt followed almost immediately by a thunderous ka-boom and then it started to downpour rain. Once I crossed the river a plow went by going the other way and my lane became increasingly covered by a thick layer of small ice crustlets. I straddled the center stripe, keeping two tires on cleared pavement and the other two plowing through the globulous snow. Highway 106 from Ellington to Eminence was not the best choice of roads considering the conditions. It is very hilly, curvy, with deep ditches, and no shoulders. My lane got so deep I had to move all tires to the plowed surface, which meant I had the whole car proceeding the wrong direction on the left side of the road. Pulling over anywhere was risky, I had to keep the inertia going to avoid getting stuck. Luckily, no one else was dumb enough to be out driving in the middle of nowhere in a snow/ice/rain storm and I managed my way to a friend's house where I waited an hour for the plow to go by the opposite direction and then gave it another shot. The roads were still ice covered but my car seemed to handle that well, it was the deep accumulations that sent my car sliding. It continued to rain and freeze, and lightning and thunder most of the night. I can't remember ever experiencing a winter thunderstorm like that before.