Hi there I happened to get my drivers license in October in Anchorage , AK right after a 3 foot snowfall , so let me start this off with ' There ' s just going to be a learning curve , trust me . ' My biggest tip about snowdriving is watching the road . You ' ll find with snow that the roads very widely I also attended college in Minneapolis MN , so I can tell you confidently that you should be pretty safe if you ' re in a major city area . They are VERY good about maintaining the roads , and most are one ways with many stops between this is great , because it will prevent picking up a large amount of speed and the extra traffic keeps the roads pretty dry and deiced , in general . However , smaller streets , neighborhoods and hills are big risks . Always keep your eyes on the road does it look icy ? Slick ? Does it look frozen over or ' crispy '? that can be black ice , and you need to be cautious . If the road is dry and clean , you can drive rather normally , with just a bit of extra caution because of the ' you never fuckin ' know ' factor . Keep a LOT of distance between you and the car ahead of you . I can ' t tell you how many accidents my friendsfamily have gotten in because they follow too close . I usually keep 23 car lengths between me and the car ahead of me unless at a light , and in the winter ? I play it safe . I ' ve never been in an accident , and I ' m in my 30 ' s . Keep an eye out for other drivers . Often times , when it comes with ice , someone else spinning out and heading for you is the problem . You never know if someone else wasn ' t paying attention and is hitting that patch of ice at the intersection too fast and is going to fishtail . Keep an eye out for other people ' s errors , I nearly got taken out by a city woodchipper when I was in highschool because it was going too fast beside me , and I spun out and softly ' landed ' in a bank of snow . If you do happen to spin out or fishtail , the worst thing you can do is slam on the breaks . They invented ' antilock ' breaks that ' stutter ' under your foot when you slam them because the car actually slidesglides better if your tires are fully stopped ie a hard slam on the breaks . You ' re supposed to ' ride ' them to decelerate as best you can , but if you ' re doing a full 360 kind of deal I ' m sure there ' s a great tutorial and you should google it . Someone with decent officialness , a drivers ed course on youtube or something will probably have sciencebacked advice better than colloquial stuff from someone like me . Best of all just stay calm and take it as easy as you can . If you ' re scared you ' ll drive worse , use good judgment and keep an eye out you never know what could happen , being a good driver can really save you a lot of heartache .