All-season tires lose their grip on road when the temperature drops below 7°C. Not just for snowy roads, winter tires use special compounds to improve your traction, stopping and handling whenever the thermometer dips below 7°C/45°F. A good guideline for installing your winter tires is once the temperature is regularly 7 degrees Celsius or less, and they should be removed once the temperatures are consistently higher than 7 degrees Celsius. This will ensure that they do not wear prematurely in warmer weather, but you shouldn't get caught by surprise. For most people in Canada, this means you should prepare your car, pick-up or SUV for unexpected snowfalls by changing over to winter tires in October or early November. Since I have Summer Tires, and only 1 day forecasted with a hi above 10 degrees next week, I will be changing my tires within a week to my winter tires.

Many drivers select their summer tires to maximize performance, choosing sporty wide, low-profile tires. The same features that make these tires ideal for warm dry roads make them less than ideal in a few centimetres of snow. The narrower your tire, the more easily you can get through snow.

The chart below shows that below 7°C/45°F snow tires really out perform all season tires.



If you regularly encounter ice, unplowed snow, or slush, then you're going to need winter tires (also known as "snow tires"). Winter tires will give you that extra traction, braking and handling you'll need to confidently drive on snow and ice. They have specialized rubber compounds and tread designs to handle the cold temperatures. The tread remains flexible to prevent snow buildup and help with traction on ice. Tests that have been conducted on ice show that even at 15mph, vehicles equipped with winter tires stopped from 1/2 to a full car length shorter than identical vehicles on all season tires. Without winter tires you are more likely to fishtail in corners and spin out on that icy hill.

Personally, I like a little Zoom Zoom so I like a good set of summer tires and an extra set of winter tires. This is the best set-up.
For you people out there that only are interested in 1 set of tires all year round in a colder climate, go for the all weather tires (not all season tires).
All weather tires are different than all season tires and all weather tires are better than all season tires in colder climates.

It's important to understand the difference in snow traction between Mud and Snow branded tires and winter tires or severe snow tires.

The Symbol:
The Mud and Snow(M+S or M&S) designation you will see on many all season tires refers only to the tread pattern itself—not the performance of the tire on snowy roads. M+S tires have a "knobby" design with gaps between the treads designed to provide improved traction over the straight rib tires used on earlier vehicles. This symbol is useless in actual cold snow performance.

The Symbol: A mountain/snowflake symbol branded on the tire's sidewall identifies tires that perform a minimum of 110% better than a standard tire in a mandated snow traction test. Many winter tires achieve levels of 130-150% better, which provides drivers with significantly shorter stopping distance and better handling. This is the symbol you need for winter wether it be a all season or all weather tire. If it doesn't have this symbol, be leary.

All weather tires:
In Canada, the all-weather tire list is short: Nokian WR 2, Hankook Optimo 4S, Vredestein Quatac, Goodyear Fortera TripleTred and Yokohama W-Drive.
The Hankook Optimo 4S tires are in very short supply. They are not sold through Hankook dealers, since Canadian Tire has the rights to this model. So head on down to Canadian Tire.



If all season is still best for you, found this tire below to be interesting for winter, but lacks the Snowflake Symbol:

http://www.continentaltire.ca/www/ti...en.html?page=1



Notice the smaller sipes inside the grooves for added winter snow traction, supposedly on the DWS.