and I guess you're the former

ive never put on snow tyres so i dont know any different..right now i dont feel the need to. Its a case for me of you dont miss what youve never had.

I wonder if the snow and roads are different depending on Province. For example, we are getting the wet snow at the moment, days and days of the stuff falling from the sky, the roads are slippier than usual?

I didn't have snow tyres from 1981 until about three years ago. In Toronto I see no need for them at all. In the country, where I was at the time of buying them, they made a big difference on the driveway, which tended to be sheet ice and at a nearby stop sign which I previously had to roll so as to avoid being stuck on the upward slope toward it.

I think the type of car matters as much as the tyres, I usually drive a Beetle convertible which goes well on snow tyres on any sort of paved or gravel surface but which doesn't go at all on snow covered fields. I also had a Toyota Land Cruiser with a manual and four wheel drive on all season M+S tyres. It went well on snow covered fields but wasn't good on roads, it stopped in the manner of an ocean liner. For a short while I had a rented Toyota Matrix on snow tyres, compared to the Beetle the lack of grip and unpredictability of the steering made that terrifying to drive. I returned it to the agency and got a Camry on all seasons which was much better. The agency people told me that none of them would go out in the Matrix and that it was the only vehicle for which they had snow tyres.

A friend here, who lives way out, traded her Subaru for Mazda (some shitty little one, a 3 or 5 or something) last summer and has just taken a hit of $17,000 to trade it in because, come winter, it scared her despite having new Gissladveds (or whatever they're called).

So, I think a suitable vehicle on sticky rubber would be best. I suggest hiring one of whatever you might buy and trying it in the snow.

Certainly are different types of snow.Out in the Prairies the snow is very dry so tends to blow over the highways etc.Further East you'll get lake effect snow which is a lot wetter and so ices more.
I drive a 4wd truck,my wife an AWD Jeep on the same tires year round.The kids have FWD cars and winter tires are a big help,but it depends on how you drive in bad weather,like an idiot and you'll still have problems no matter what rubber is on the vehicle.

I drove down Hyw 2 this afternoon from edmonton to the airport, not a big drive, about 30 min's. we have had light snow on and off the night before and all day, road was very clear of snow, however on that short drive i passed 7 cars/suv's and pick ups and 1 semi with trailer that had spun off/rolled over.

wonder what tires they had on that straight,wide clear road, getting going on any type of tire is easy, stopping and turning is the fun bit.

Hi

We are in Lasalle Ontario and I appreciate do not get the same snow levels as say Alberta or further North. I would say this though. Canada copes very well with the snow...very proactive...snow ploughs and salters out in force at the very sniff of snow...or ice...........The same cannot be said for SOME drivers........you have to adapt the driving to the conditions.....always. The ones who whizzed past me.......were usually the ones I passed further along in the ditch.

Yes you have to take care and show respect for both your own journey and that of the person coming the other way...who could 'lose it' at any time in front of you.

Hope this helps
Stef

I can't speak for all of Canada , but as of today I'm officially sick of the effing stuff.

Here we go again.

People who don't live in Alberta have this misconception that Alberta gets lots and lots of snow.

Let's see now Lasalle that is basically Windsor...right?

Annual snowfalls:

Lethbridge 130.48cm
Calgary 126.67cm
Windsor 126.57cm
Edmonton 123.54cm
Red Deer 116.21cm

Oh gee look they're all pretty much the same.

Actually if you look at the attached link you'll see its the eastern provinces that get the most snow.
http://windsor.weatherstats.ca/winners.html?17 Snowiest cities listed on the right.

You have to get down to number 49 on the list before you hit a western province other than BC and that's Manitoba and number 57 before you get to an Alberta city.

Out of curiosity (and lazyness) Steve, Where has snow (or the likelyhood of snow) the longest? My ignorant inpression is it starts earlier and lasts longer out in the more western provinces, but the East coast usually has more actual accumulation and major snow dumps?


Either way, anywhere but coastal BC I would think snow tires couldnt do any harm, and could be a major benefit when you really need them to stop you most. Many insurance companies now offer a 5 or 10% policy discount for having 4 snows on from November to March, and anything that helps with premiums here is a good thing

Longest snow cover (days) http://windsor.weatherstats.ca/winners.html?30 again listed on the right. Calgary is 76th on the list out of a 100 and Edmonton is 37th I guess maybe it doesn't last longer in some places in the western provinces.

Once again I'm not saying that snow tires are not better, but that in some instances if a person adjusts their driving style winter tires may or may not be worth the investment.

As I said above I've driven for 46 years without winter tires and had no issues but having said that the next set of tires on my vehicle will be Nokian all weather tires (the only all season tire with the full winter rating).

However if I lived in any of the top 50 cities on the snowiest cities list (previous post) I likely would have had winter tires on a long time ago.

That's odd. When we were in Quebec ad planning our move to NB, we were looking at Moncton, Saint John and Moncton.

Research included climate and there was so little difference in the figures I saw on a couple of sites it wasn't really an issue. Maybe one City had a bit more rain but a bit colder in winter, that sort of thing.

Moncton (6th) 349.91 cm
Fredericton (23) 276.52 cm
Saint John (29) 256.87 cm

That looks considerably different.

But we've had big differences in snowfalls from one winter to the next. We've just had a very snowy winter but there were no ginormous snowfalls.

Normally we get a third of a winter's snowfall in March. By February's end we had record snow "on the ground" and the second most snow having fallen since records began. So we were expecting the worst by the end but we've had no snow apart from one slight dusting in two-thirds of March.

What are those figures? The previous winter for when they were published? An average over a shortish period perhaps distorted by a heavy winter?

Those figures are based on the 30 year average.

From the front page of the environment Canada official Weather Winners website.

I hear ya loud and clear. It has been snowing non stop since saturday afternoon, and it's the heavy wet sticky stuff rather than the light fluffy just blows away stuff, I just hope it's gone by June

Wow. Not much to argue with there then.

Good job the two sites I looked at told a different story. I might have been put off Moncton if I'd seen weather winners.