Howdy neighbor! After living in the Sierra's for most of my years, we moved to North Idaho two decades ago--love it. I've had the most aggressive studded snow tires I could find for over 40 years, and have never been sorry. If you make the change to winter tires, make them useful. Mine are mounted on rims that I change myself, and only run them for about 5 months in the winter.
IF we head South this year (towing), I won't put them on. But come November, steel hits the pavement. Yeah, I know they are detrimental to pavement and are noisy, but when you want to stop quickly, they work. Just IMHO....