Woman's Amazingly Simple Life Hack for Dealing With Frozen Windshields

A video of a woman's "super quick" tip for getting rid of ice on your car windows has gone viral on TikTok.

The clip was posted by @chloemart15, who is a mother, according to the TikTok profile. The video has had 4.5 million views since it was first shared on November 29.

A message overlaid on the clip says: "POV [point of view]: Life hack I learnt and can't live without."

The footage shows a person filling up what appears to be a plastic shopping bag with water. The video then shows a view of a car with what looks like an ice-covered windshield as well as frosted windows.

A person is later shown placing the plastic bag of water on top of the windshield and pushing it down the glass, which appears to clear off the ice. The same is done along the side windows of the car.

A caption shared with the video says: "Super quick & easy for mornings on the go!"

Keeping your car windshield and other parts clear of ice is crucial to ensure safe driving during wintry conditions.

"Driving in wintry conditions such as snow, freezing rain, and ice puts drivers at increased risk of car crashes," warns the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Around 21 percent (or 1,235,000) of the more than 5,891,000 vehicle crashes that take place each year are weather-related, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

The federal body says 70 percent of weather-related crashes happen on wet pavements, while just under half (46 percent) happen during rainfall.

A smaller portion occur during snow or sleet (18 percent), on icy pavements (13 percent), and on snowy or slushy pavement (16 percent), the DOT notes.

The viral post comes as a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect in parts of the U.S., including portions of Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California as well as pockets of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The national weather body warned that "a series of cold fronts will start to impact areas along and west of the Cascades [mountain range in the Pacific northwest] Thursday, with rain for the valleys and snow at many mountain passes," while heavier precipitation is expected to hit the region on Friday and continue into the weekend.

Scattered thunderstorms, including some severe ones, are also possible Thursday, mainly over southeast Texas, while "a conditional risk" of a few tornadoes is also possible, the NWS said.

According to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Climate Prediction Center's outlook for December 2023 to February 2024, the chances of a "warmer-than-average" winter are higher than the chances of a "cooler-than-average" one across much of the northern part of the U.S., including Alaska, and most of Hawaii.

For the same time period, the NOAA predicts "wetter-than-average conditions for northern Alaska, portions of the West, the southern Plains, Southeast, Gulf Coast and lower mid-Atlantic and drier-than-average conditions across the northern tier of the U.S., especially in the northern Rockies and High Plains and near the Great Lakes."

Newsweek has contacted the original poster of the viral clip for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

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