Temps have been much, much colder here in Calgary of late – we had a frost warning last night, and it was a balmy 3 degrees celsius this morning. No joke! This is not necessarily typical for late August, but also not necessarily unheard-of. So, aside from bringing in my tomato plant overnight, I’ve been thinking about the upcoming cold weather.
And because I have a new car, one of the things I’ve been thinking about is winter tires. It’s funny, because before I moved to Calgary I never had winter tires, just all-seasons. And I know my family back in Ontario all still use all-season tires. But once we moved here, and discovered that they don’t plough residential streets (really!) I discovered the benefit of snow tires. Without them, there would certainly have been days when I would have never been able to get out of my driveway. Actually, even with snow tires, there are still some days around here when you just can’t get out of your driveway because your street hasn’t been plowed. You have to wait for all the SUV and pickup owners to drive down the street repeatedly so they can beat down a track for you to drive in. Seriously!
So. I’ve always had snow tires in the decade since we moved here, and with my old Sienna van, I even had a second set of rims to make installation and storage easier. But now, I have a new car, with basic summer tires that don’t perform all that well in the snow. I know this because despite the fact that I got the car in late April, I have driven it in the snow. In a blizzard in May, to be precise. Oh yes, we win weather awards out here in Alberta!
So – it’s like this. I’m looking at about $1,000 to outfit my car with snow tires and I’m not exactly thrilled about it. To be honest, I can think of a lot of things I’d rather spend $1,000 on, but then again, I do drive my kids around in that car. And even if I didn’t, there’s me to think about, and the other people on the road. Out here, winter tires are definitely worth it. The roads are always snowy, then a chinook (a warm, dry wind) blows in and melts the top layer of the snow so that when the temperature drops back down to -20, the roads are just plain icy.
So I need the tires, and I’ll buy them, and forget about the other things I might have spent the money on *sigh*. But I’m curious…how many other people out there are believers in snow tires? Let me know: do you do the change?
it should be law as far as i’m concerned. snow tires aren’t just for snow, they are for colder temperatures as well as they’re made differently to work with the cold.
We always did all-seasons until a few years ago when we had a particularly bad winter. After we got the snow tires, I couldn’t believe the difference it made navigating those snowy streets. Definitely worth it.
I was a snow tire virgin until last winter….never again will I go without! I loooooved them. I actually hated my car and then after I got the snow tires – It was like having a new car. Expensive but worth it Kath. But can we return to the frost warning??? We;re melting out here in Ontario!
We absolutely change, AND we have studded tires ($1000 per car) after our accident last November. Road conditions around here are brutal. I’ve missed several days of work due to highway closures – investigating and cleaning up fatal accidents (summer and winter).
We change in October and April.
yup. even though i’m in ontario, and the cost kills me, i had a massive accident on snowcovered roads and have been using snow tires ever since.
for me the question is WHEN since the warmer weather causes the tires to breakdown faster (requiring new ones – $$ – all the sooner)