Are you not allowed to use studded tires?
In western Washington we only get 1 snowstorm a year on average and that is usually only 3-4". Moderate snow is once a decade and major events are once a generation.
But you would never know if from the seniors who faithfully don the studded tires every November and leave 'em on til the last day of March. You can always hear 'em coming as they grind away at the pavement.
The sad irony is that, for all the damage they do to the streets, should it actually snow they never travel - they go to ground and wait it out (and call on us to run their errands for them ;'}
I think MD outlawed them years ago.
Now, we only have chains.
Every winter, I’d swap out my normal tires for the studs on the Gremlin and be literally good to go all winter.
Since I knew how to change my own wheels, I’d normally swap them only when *really* bad weather was coming, around Jan-Feb and leave the regular tires on the rest of the time.