I remember freezing rain here when I was a kid. But,it does seem we have it more often now. It scares the hell out of me, but I still don't get why sometimes the rain turns to ice and other times it's light snow when the temperature is hovering around freezing. I guess it's humidity, but I'll take snow any day!
This is the only place I've lived that's had snow, so no comparison. However, when I used to travel to northern AZ from Tempe, I noticed the snow there was completely different. All powder. I couldn't teach my kids how to make a snowman until we moved here.