La Niña this year. (El Niño and La Niña effects up here tend to be opposite from the effects down there.)
When it does snow up here, it tends to be dry and powdery. At least at my place. I think what causes all of the ice is the warmer daytime temperatures and very cold nights. Unlike the San Gabriels where I spent a lot of time in the Winter, we seem to have more of a thaw-freeze cycle. I’m basically at sea level, and I haven’t been up to the mountains. I suspect it’s very different higher up. I never saw studded tires in SoCal. I don’t know if they’re legal there and only people who live in the mountains use them, but no doubt we who lived in the L.A. Basin simply carried chains and used them on our ski trips. Here, I hear studded tires even in the near-sea level Seattle area as I drive on the 5.
As you correctly surmise, snowy Winters are not the norm this low. In a typical year (based on my seven years here) we’ll get one or two snow storms and the snow will melt quickly. 2004/2005 was pretty heavy, and the snow stuck around for a couple/few weeks. I was ‘TDY’ for the Winter of 2006/2007, but it was heavier. My friend who was staying in my house said the snow was nearly up to his knees. Other years the snow came, looked pretty, I groused about having to drive in it, and then it was gone.
Being a lazy person, I like the idea of putting on studded tires and leaving them on for months. But in this environment, they’re not worth it. I only have to get up my street, up a perpendicular street, and onto the main road. I don’t know if the main road is plowed (the stretches of thick icy patches lead me to suspect they’re not – or at least not often), but the traffic is enough to make it drivable in a 4WD. At worst, I’d only need additional traction for five miles until I reach the freeway. So chains and caution are the way to go.
I now have my chains. I hope I don’t have to use them. As I said, if it’s that bad I can telecommute. But they’re there in case I do need them.
Well One thing I can say with absolute seriousness is that the Hakkapelittas were better on wet ice than the $40 a piece all season Coopers I had before on that car were on wet pavement, They just bit into ice like a crampon. The only thing the studs didn’t help on was a first wet snow of about half and inch of compresonable slush. Hard enough to keep the rubber off the pavement, but soft enough no studs or pattern could catch it. Man that stuff is the true evil in the high Rockies, I’ll take black ice over that any day with good tires on a Subie.
Not to be snarky, but “all season” tires are really “no season” tires. They’re a shitty compromise which sucks on dry/wet pavement and sucks in snow and on ice.
I’d say that if you regularly encounter snow, slush or ice in the winter, spend those extra $$$ for a set of good winter tires and change when the weather starts to look threatening. In northern Scandinavia (Sweden, Finland and Norway), we always have two sets of wheels to a car, and we change regularly every fall and every spring. Studded are great in rural areas and if you drive often on icy pavement, but modern studless are at least as good on snow and slush and inferior only on slick (wet) ice or on hardpack. That thin layer of ice which doesn’t cover the pavement structure – is that “black ice”? – is handled just as well on quality studless tires as on studded tires. If you have snow only one in a while, get some snow chains (and use them!) or plan to stay at home while there’s snow on the roads.
If you insist on driving in snow with normal tires and without snow chains, bring a cell phone and make sure your AAA membership and insurance coverage are up to date. 4WD is a piss-poor replacement for good tires.
ETA: Modern quality studless winter tires are made from very soft rubber. That’s why they stick to winter roads, and that’s also why they suck in high speeds and if the temperature is above ~10 degrees C. Driving on studless Hakkas on the summer is almost as dangerous as driving on summer tires in the winter. Summer tires (and all season tires) are made from harder rubber and are more appropriate in the summer.
To be fair, I did say “around here.” My purpose was to introduce the idea of having two sets of tires, one for Summer and another for Winter.
Disadvantages of studded tires which I don’t think have been mentioned yet- on dry pavement they are noisier than nonstudded tires, and the ride is not as smooth.
(El Niño and La Niña effects up here tend to be opposite from the effects down there.)