Iran 2026: Winter Tyres Follow the Road, Not a Date

Iran’s winter tyre position is easy to state badly and harder to state correctly. There is no fixed national season. What exists is a system of route-specific restrictions: when snow arrives on a mountain crossing, the traffic police restrict or close that crossing, and the restriction is lifted when the road is clear.

That is a meaningful difference. A calendar rule tells you what to fit on 1 November. Iran’s system tells you to be equipped before you drive towards a pass, and to check that pass on the morning you intend to use it.

What applies where

The roads that actually matter

Three corridors generate most of Iran’s winter driving trouble, all of them crossing the Alborz between Tehran and the Caspian:

• The Chalus road (Road 59), over the Kandovan tunnel and pass. Spectacular, narrow in places, and the first to be restricted.
• The Haraz road (Road 77) to Amol, which carries heavy traffic and closes for avalanche risk as well as snow.
• The Firuzkuh route (Road 79), usually the most resilient of the three and therefore the diversion when the others shut.

Add the northwestern passes around Tabriz and Ardabil, and the higher Zagros crossings towards Kermanshah, and you have the map of where equipment is checked.

Chains, not markings

Iranian winter announcements are built around snow chains. Checkpoints on the approach roads turn back vehicles that are not equipped, which is a far more effective mechanism than a fine issued after the fact. A visiting driver crossing the Alborz between November and March should treat a chain set as standard kit, the same way a warning triangle is.

Studded tyres exist as a seasonal option rather than a general fitment. For most drivers they are the wrong tool: a winter tyre with real depth, plus chains in the boot, covers every situation the restriction system is designed for.

Why 1.6 mm is not the number to aim at

The international tread floor, set in Council Directive 89/459/EEC, is a depth of at least 1,6 mm in the main grooves. It is a minimum defined for ordinary road use, and it has very little to do with a snow-covered gradient at 2,700 metres.

On a mountain road the practical minimum is closer to 4 mm. Below that a winter tyre stops behaving like a winter tyre: the block edges that bite into packed snow are gone, and what remains is a soft compound with no mechanical grip.

Heat at the other end of the country

Iran’s southern half poses the opposite problem. Summer surface temperatures around the Gulf and across the central deserts are extreme, and they age rubber quickly. A tyre that spends its summers in Bandar Abbas and its winters on the Chalus road is being asked to do two jobs that pull in opposite directions — which is an argument for replacing on age as well as on depth.

Seven land borders

• Iraq and Turkey — west, with Bazargan the main Turkish crossing.
• Armenia and Azerbaijan — northwest, including the Nakhchivan frontier.
• Turkmenistan — northeast.
• Afghanistan and Pakistan — east.

India, Bangladesh and Bhutan are sometimes grouped with these but lie beyond Pakistan and share no frontier with Iran.

Speed limits, fuel, documents and enforcement are covered in the Driving in Iran guide.