They are not required very often here in the Lot-et -Garonne, but we have used them on previous cars, changing when the temperature got down to 7c. It was surprising how much you could feel the change. The car seemed more stable. We had a spare set of wheels sourced on ebay with the Winter tyres. Spare wheels for our current car are too expensive at the moment and there are no plans to go to a snow region for the foreseeable future.
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Yes summer tyres stiffen up as the temp drops 7c being most peoples change point to a rubber that stays more flexible at colder temps. Not just in snow but dry and wet weather safety improves.
Autocar did a road test for Winter tyres on a Skoda Yeti. It was a very interesting test. Not a long video on youtube. [Winter tyres vs 4x4 - snow tyre test - autocar.co.uk - YouTube]
Puts the point over succinctly.