Central Illinois was my first time experiencing freezing rain. Leaving work, everyone had to spend 30+ minutes chiseling an inch of ice off their windshield with their car blasting heat, while being rained on and whipped with strong wind.

It's not too bad if you're patient and plan ahead: raise the wipers so they're not frozen to the windshield and let the car warm up. After about 5-10 minutes of warming, the ice on a windshield comes off very easy. Granted, the last storm wasn't an inch of ice, it was about a 1/4" of ice, some snow, then about another 1/4" of ice. Took me longer to shovel around the car than it did to clean the car itself off.

That sheet of ice over your whole car isn't too bad if you can figure out the right amount of force to crack the ice without also cracking your windshield. :D

One day last week I spent my time after work removing it off my car, then driving to where my friend works, and removing it off her car too.

Yeah... Gripping and flipping a sheet of ice off a windshield is surprisingly satisfying.

Same feeling here 4000 miles away from US, that's probably just an old almost forgotten reflex from the last ice age

This is what you agree to[1] when you live in Illinois. ;) Hello, fellow Illinoisan.

[1] Other things you agree includes a terrible budget, corrupt politicians, and the sad realization that the government here only works here at all when those corrupt politicians are in charge.

I live in Illinois, while I accept and can deal with the weather, I neither agree with, nor accept any of the corruption. I generally vote against every incumbent at every election.

My sad realization is that when we elected a governor who wasn't interrelated with the existing cronies, we ended up without a budget for over two years.

I'm not looking forward to the heat wave this weekend. Either this large accumulation of snow will cause flooding, or it will melt a bit and then turn solid when the temperature drops again.

I'm not terribly concerned, and I live right on the banks of the Salt Creek in the western Chicago 'burbs. The creek level is pretty low currently and has plenty of capacity for run-off. I'm sure there are areas that might experience flooding, but I wouldn't expect any more than a heavy summer storm.

A thaw/freeze cycle also isn't that bad if you've already shoveled what you need to. If you haven't, yeah, it's going to suck when to get around to it.

Places with more favorable weather usually cost a premium :(. Seattle is pretty mild though if you're in the market.

Does Seattle have favorable weather? My in-laws live there (Redmond) and every time we go there it is raining. We live in Portland and I can't tell you how many times we've left Portland with sunny weather and it has been steadily raining in Seattle, even in August! I think somewhere like San Diego has what would be considered more favorable weather.

Depends on what you consider favorable. Winters don't normally ever drop below freezing, and Summers don't normally stick above the 70Fs. It's pretty moderate thanks to the mountain ranges.

That's the new normal friend. AGW means more unpredictable weather from now on.

That's the old normal, too.