Allow me to add that the economic conditions are adding to this.
Many factories were permanently closed early in the recession - and apparently they over-did it. As the recession went on, the demand for tires picked back up much more rapidly than expected. That lead to shortages. This was filled, to some extent with tires from China. That was followed with an accusation of tire dumping by the Chinese, which turned into a tariff. That lead to more shortages of available tires (read: non-tariff!)
Interestingly, the demand for tires in the chinese market is increasing so fast that they are buying up the raw materials, - which leads to higher prices. In turn this has driven tire prices up - which usually results in a negative market reaction. Ironically, the demand for tires in the US is continuing to rise, and the price increases have been accepted with an indication that the market could tolerate more!
And that's where we are today. Winter tires are typically made starting in the summer and into the fall. Production is stopped somewhere in mid fall. This means regular tires are NOT produced during this period.
As was pointed out, there is an increased demand for all types of tires in the northern states in the fall and early winter months. There's also the end of the year inventory kind of thing, but that doesn't apply much this year as supplies are pretty low all around - and this has been known for several months.
Sorry to hear about the difficulties obtaining the tires you want, but by February or March, this will probably reverse itself.
