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.