Why don’t summer tires work in the cold? Does their effectiveness decrease with temperature in a linear or step like way?
In: Physics
In addition to what other people have said – the tread of tires is cut differently depending on what the expected conditions are. Summer (ie warm and dry) tires have large flat sections of tread that have large contact patches with the asphalt. This works great for dry asphalt, it is poor for water and ice.
Snow tires have likes of cuts (siping) that is designed so the treads will “cut” through the snow or water to gain better traction on the surface.
An analogy: If you have a large 4×8 sheet of wood, it will stick to a flat concrete floor really well, but if there is any oil or water on the floor the entire sheet slips, this is a summer tire. A winter tire has a lot of nails nailed through it, so it slides on a flat concrete floor more easily, but if there is water or oil on the floor, the nails cut through the water or oil and dig into the concrete. This is a not a perfect analogy, but it gets the point across.
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