mel_hunt

Were planning a trip to the Pacific NW in a few weeks. My partner is wondering if we should leave our snow tires on in case there is snow at higher elevations?? I coudn't answer that one so I thought I'd leave it to those more familiar with the area. What say ye?

MH

tomfuller

If you are talking studded tires, you must have them off by April 1. If you come to an unplowed road I would urge you to turn around and use the more traveled roads.
If it does snow an inch or two from now on, it will melt within 48 hours.
I will leave the good snow tires on my small car until about May. My rule is, If the snow is all the way across the road I turn around.

Bobmrg

tomfuller, the state has extended the stud season until April 16th.

Fodorite018

I saw that on the news too, that WA extended the time for studded tires. OR has not though, so if that is in your plans just take that into consideration.

tomfuller

I've been carrying a pair of tire chains in my Honda since October. I haven't used them so far this winter. If I had to go over one of the passes when it was required to have them on, I could mount them. Usually ODoT just requires that you have them with you or have traction tires with the three peak mountain with a snowflake on the sidewall of the tire.
BTW it has snowed 1.5" since I answered your question. By noon tomorrow, it will be melted.
Two consecutive years, we have had about 3/4" on my porch railing on May 3 (elevation 4450').

Tomsd

Ahhh reminds me of the good old days in Klamath. We used to have "nobbies" (sp?) that dad left on most of the winter. That was years before studs came along, and rarely did we ever have to chain up.

And later - only had to chain up once all the years/times we were driving from SF to ski at Lake Tahoe. Also had snow tires on one of the cars for the winter.

Hey - one year - waaaay back in the 60's - in Klamath - I can remember looking out the living room window on the 4th of July - and saw some of the biggest snowflakes you could imagine, which dusted the ground. It was gone a couple of hours later. Most of Klamath is about 4,200 feet or so.

mel_hunt

Thanks for your responses. Looks like we will keep the snow tires on for our trip. Might be nice to see a little snow anyway since we got almost none in Ohio thIs year.

MH

NorthwestMale

Mel Hunt,

You might want to be advised that "only two states" had "colder than average" 2011's... Washington and Oregon.

Furthermore, our LAST APRIL (2011) was "the single coldest April on record in recorded history" (for the Western WA area)


NOT that it will seem particularly "cold" to you, but, well, you won't need sandals... (potentially not snow tires either, but it probably won't hurt to have the snow tires)


Just what ARE these people talking about with their "global warming"???

(either they don't know what "warming" means... OR they don't know what "global" means)

LOL

Fodorite018

Not sure if your trip includes OR, but our news just said that our date for the removal of studded tires has been extended until 4/9.