I've driven front-drive cars with all-season tires for 16 years. I've never had an issue aside from 2 times I got stuck on un-plowed hills that I knew darn well I should'nt have driven on and decided to try anyway.

AWD definitely isn't necessary. The thing people forget about AWD too is that it's not all-wheel-stop - people think they're driving a small tank that'll do whatever they want and then end up in more trouble because they overestimated what AWD can do for you.

The biggest thing is just use common sense. If it's so bad that FWD can't make it, chances are AWD won't do much better.