When I'm expecting snow, I always put the wipers up on the car. It makes it MUCH easier to clean the windshield.
When I'm parking for the night and expecting snow, I put the wipers up and lay an old towel across the windshield. If the pager goes off in the middle of the night, I just pull the towel, and all the accumulated snow, off the car, put the wipers down, and go.
It gives me good enough visibility to make it to the firehouse from my house withouot having to mess with a scraper.
Canoedogs, I'm surprised you don't know that trick- my wisconsin wife taught it to me. Leaving the wipers up makes it easier to get them going the next morning. A) they don't freeze to the windshield, and potentially damage the rubber when you scrape the window, and B), you can dust off the windshield in the morning without banging them, thus letting them move easier (not moving such a heavy load of snow on the first couple strokes)