Speaking on behalf of California, I'll just say that we in California who experience a major earthquake maybe once every 25 years look in wonder at people in other parts of the country who experience hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and flooding every year.

 

Yeah but you also have mudslides and forest fires. The probability of an earthquake doing some damage to your property if you live in California for an extended period of time is MUCH greater than any force of nature in the midwest. Outside of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, tornadoes aren't all that common, and damage is in a very concentrated area. I've lived in the midwest for 17 years, and I have yet to even see a tornado from miles away. Blizzards are more of an inconvenience than anything else.

 

In Calgary....no earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding or Hurricanes and most of the time not a lot of snow....it just gets f*cking cold in the winter!

Another cool thing is the chinooks. It can go from -30c to +10c in one day. They only plow the major roads here so I need a snow tire that's good on ice build-up.

 

u'r Calgary is about the same as central Alaska. we drive on Ice all winter too. just the major roads plowed. the Dunlop M2's worked awesome. Don't know if the M3's are the upgrade or for a more performance than traction...i'd ask somebody like tirerack or a local dealer. but the M2's were awesome!