Mine started 2nd week of Dec.

And the downside of the rain is this: The idiot who designed the roof of my house chose aesthetics over function... so there is a single point where a ton of water comes down and when that gutter gets plugged with leaves the watter backs up and sits against the wall of the house and sometimes seeps through.

So, in a downpour, I just climbed a ladder and cleared the leaves out of the gutter. I never remember to do this when the sun shines; I only do it during downpours such as tonight's.

water even...

I know your pain. I have a flat section of roof over my back porch. The roofer screwed it up and the seal didn't take. I tarred and sealed it and added new gutters but I've got to fix it right in the spring.

You need to stop the leaves getting into your gutters. Something like this or this or this will do the job.

I saw a dandelion outside of my office today.

Our daffodil bulbs have started to sprout already.

I'm aware of all those, dg, but truthfully I think the better solution is to keep the gutters clean. What I ran into last night is that the gutter was full and spilling over the top due to heavy rain. From what I've seen and heard, in heavy rain the same thing will occur because of the "built-in overflow control system" as mentioned in the second link.

Fortunately, when we get our heavy rain it is usually not too cold, so even the current system isn't too bad.