Most people should know that snow tires give better traction in the snow, but few are aware of how snow tires perform during the summer. You’re probably ask, “Why would anyone ever run on snow tires in the summer?” It is a good question, and typical answers include apathy, amusement, ignorance, and disdain.

I have been running my beater, a base 1993 Nissan Sentra, on snow tires since I put my summer rims on this past spring. Actually, I am running on 2 snow tires, mounted in the front, and then 2 different all-season tires mounted in the rear. My reasons for doing so are a healthy mixture of amusement at how ridiculous the setup is, disdain for my car (being a beater, and all), and, above all else, an insurmountable sense of apathy that permeates me to the core. More pointedly, I purchased used alloy rims for my Sentra as summer rims (so that I’m not running around all summer on my Blizzaks), and the previous owner had the aforementioned tires mounted on them which I haven’t bothered to replace.

So how do snow tires perform in the dog days of summer? In a word, poorly. Snow tires are designed to be vicious during a blizzard, and the tire design required to perform in those conditions is completely different from that required to be a good summer tire. Specifically, snow tires utilize dozens of independent, squarish nubs to bite into and grab snow. These nubs are connected to the tire only at their base; no two nubs are connected further away from the tread base. On dry pavement, these nubs flex all over the place, since there is no rigidity to them whatsoever. Overall steering feel is consequntly very vague and mushy.

Snow tires also benefit from being narrower, the exact opposite of what makes for more grip in a summer tire. While this point is moot for similarly sized summer and winter tires, one or both sets of tires has been compromised if they are the same width.

Grip
Dry grip is generally average to poor. I am surprised by the performance I can squeeze out of the snows on my Sentra when I am smooth and take a corner correctly, but that is mostly because my expectactions for them are so low to begin with.

Steering Feel and Response
Terrible. As mentioned above, the nubs on a snow tire make any sort of feedback very vague. Turn in bite is akin to someone with no teeth trying to bite into an apple. The soft compound of the tire, necessary to remain pliable in freezing temperatures, makes all parts of the tire to flexible in the summer. Sidewall flex compounds the nub fiasco.

Wet Weather Performance
The absolute worst part of driving a snow tire in the summer is its wet weather performance. It is absolutely terrifying. Tires rely on a tread pattern that channels water away from rubber and into grooves running through the tread to cut through water and prevent hydroplaning. Snow tires’ tread is designed for gripping snow, which requires a tread design incompatible with effective water displacement.

I probably have about 1/3 the traction in the wet right now that I do in the dry. When we took Henry’s beater Miata around the Olympic Peninsula in June, it had bald snow tires. Wet weather traction was equally terrifying, particulary when trying to run mountain roads in a wet fog with a several thousand foot drop on one side.

Tire Wear
Remember how snow tires are very soft, to remain pliable in the cold? Well, that comes at the price of increased tire wear. Don’t expect snow tires to last anywhere near as long as an all season (or summer tire, for that matter), particularly during the warmer months.

So, in sum, snow tires are a terrible idea to run in the summer. They have no redeeming qualities other than snow traction, which is moot when it is 90 degrees outside. But, if you are amused by the prospect of running the completely wrong type of tire, or just don’t care, go for it! Just be wary of the guardrails when it rains…