Tires: All weather v. all seson tires, wintry conditions, season tire

Question
What is the difference between all season and all weather tires.  I know most people are used to all weather tires being able to handle snow, slush and ice as well as warm weather but there seems to be new terminology with this all season tire which according to some tire manufacturers only tolerate warm weather and slight wintry conditions.  Is there a standard definition for these two phrases throughout the tire industry?

Answer
Karin,

The term "All Season" has been in use since the 1970's.  If anything "All Weather" is the new term - and these terms mean exactly what the tire retailer says they mean.  In other words, these tires have some snow capability, but how much is not specified.

Your comment:

I was born in 1970. As long as I have been driving, Fords, Hondas and Saturns, the term all weather has been used. The responder still did not explain necessarily the difference between all-season and all weather. From what I have gathered on the web, all season refers to tires that can barely handle snow, ice and slush while all-weather should be able to handle snow, slush and ice. Thanks for the assistance.  

Followup to your comment:

Karin,

I was working in the tire industry when the first "All Season" tires appeared - while radial tires were becoming the standard in the US - in the middle 1970's.  "All Season" is what the industry called them then - it is what the industry calls them now.  I sit on a several tire technical committees for both the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Rubber Manufacturers Association and I can state with confidence that the term "All Weather" is not in standard usage by the technical people who use the product - and in fact I had never heard the term used until Nokian introduced some tires that they claimed had good snow capability, but could be used year-round.  They are using the term "All Weather" to try to distinguish them from "All Season" tires, but this is more marketing than technology.

But you should be aware that there is no standard for either of these terms.  In fact the only thing for which there is a standard is the letters "M" and "S" when used in combination such as: "M/S", "M&S", "M+S", etc. - and tires with these markings are frequently called "All Season", however that phrase is not part of the definition, which is limited to what the tread pattern looks like. The snow traction of tires with this marking ranges from "hardly any" to "quite good".

While you may have grown up with the term, and it may be the common usage where you live, it is not universally used - quite the opposite!

So tires with the "M" and "S" markings can be called whatever the local language feels comfortable with - "All Season" - "All Weather" - without fear that there is a problem with the definition.