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TIRE TIPS // BUYING

All-Weather vs All-Season Tires in Alberta

THE SHORT ANSWER

An all-weather tire carries the three-peak mountain snowflake and is built to run through an Alberta winter without a changeover, while an all-season is a three-season tire here and starts hardening below 7°C. If you want one set of tires in the Foothills, buy all-weather.

BY THE RIM2RIM CREW PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 3, 2026 4 MIN READ

The one marking that separates them

Both tires are sold as year-round tires, and only one of them is rated for severe snow. Look at the sidewall. An all-weather tire carries the three-peak mountain snowflake, the little mountain with a flake inside it. An all-season carries M+S at best, which is a tread pattern claim, not a test result.

The snowflake is earned. Under the standard the tire industry agreed on in 1999, a tire has to score at least 110 on a traction index against a reference tire rated 100, measured on medium-packed snow under ASTM F1805. That is a real bar, and an all-season does not clear it.

It is worth knowing what the test does not cover. It measures acceleration traction on packed snow. It does not measure braking, it does not measure cornering, and it does not measure ice. So the snowflake tells you a tire will pull away from a stop on a snowy road. It does not promise it stops like a dedicated winter tire on the glare ice you find at a shaded intersection in February.

What the province itself says

Alberta Transportation publishes a plain-language table on this, and it is blunter than most tire marketing. An all-season is "designed for year round usage in some Canadian markets," with the note that the "rubber may start to harden and lose gripping power at temperatures below 7°C." An all-weather is "designed for all year use in Canada" and is described as the closest thing possible to a Canadian all-season, with more aggressive siping and a softer compound, but without wearing as fast as a winter tire in summer.

Read those two lines beside each other and the decision makes itself. Okotoks spends roughly half the year under 7°C. "Some Canadian markets" does not mean this one.

Where an all-weather is enough, and where it is not

An all-weather is enough for a lot of drivers here. If your winter is the Highway 2 commute, cleared town streets, a plowed lot at work, and the occasional bad morning, one snowflake-rated set will carry you through the year without two changeovers and a second set of wheels in the garage.

It is not enough for everyone. If your winter includes the range roads west of town, Highway 22, the hills down into the Sheep River valley, or leaving before the plough on a regular basis, a dedicated winter tire still stops shorter on ice by a margin you can feel. The gap between an all-weather and a true winter tire is smallest on packed snow and largest on polished ice, which is exactly what a chinook leaves behind.

What you give up

Nothing is free. Against a good all-season, an all-weather usually gives up a little tread life, a little fuel economy and a little quiet at highway speed, because the compound that stays soft in the cold also scrubs faster in July. Against a winter tire, it gives up ice braking and the very cold end of the range.

What you get back is one set of tires, one purchase, no changeover appointments, and no set sitting in the garage half the year. For a second vehicle, a commuter car, or anyone who dreads the October phone call, that trade is a good one.

The cost math over four years

Run it over four years instead of one purchase. Two sets means buying two sets of tires, but each set only wears for half the year, so both last roughly twice as long in seasons. Add two changeovers a year, plus storage if the second set has nowhere to live, and the running cost of the two-set plan lands close to the one-set plan for most drivers.

Where the two-set plan wins is on the ice, and where the one-set plan wins is on the calendar. That is the honest summary. Anyone who tells you all-weathers are simply cheaper is skipping the part where they wear faster than the all-season half of a two-set plan.

Which one for which driver

The town driver with a garage, a short commute and a clear preference for never thinking about tires again: all-weather.

The Highway 2 commuter who leaves at six and drives in the dark all winter: winters, with all-weathers as the fallback if a changeover is never going to happen.

The truck that works, tows or lives on gravel: a truck all-terrain for three seasons and a dedicated winter set for the fourth, or a snowflake-rated all-terrain if it has to be one set.

The car that only comes out in summer: all-season is fine, and so is a summer tire.

Quick answers

Is an all-weather tire a winter tire? It is severe-snow rated, so it satisfies winter tire rules where they exist, including BC's. It is not the equal of a dedicated winter tire on ice.

Will all-weathers get me the insurance discount? Alberta insurers that offer a winter tire discount ask for the three-peak mountain snowflake, which an all-weather carries. Ask your broker, since the discount is not universal.

Do all-weathers wear out faster? In summer, yes, compared with a hard all-season compound. Over a full year of Alberta driving the difference is smaller than people expect, because the same tire is not sitting in a garage for six months.

Can I run all-seasons if I only drive in town? You can, and thousands of people do. Below 7°C you are stopping on a compound that has gone hard, on the one morning a year it matters. That is the risk you are pricing.

Do I still need to check tread depth? Every fall, on both types. A snowflake-rated tire loses its winter bite before the tread is legally worn out, so measure it before the season instead of after the first bad morning.

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