Tire companies are beginning to offer a class of tire called "all weather". Think of them as a class between all season and snow tires. They're essentially snow tires with a little harder rubber compound that you can run all year. I've ran them the last 2 years on my wife's Subaru Outback. I use Firestone weathergrips. The have the 3 peak mountain snowflake symbol indicating they pass testing to be classified as snow tires, but they wear much better. They're a good compromise and the snow performance is great. Through this last weeks storm the tires performed great.