Just from pictures, the important thing seems to be a wide, deep groove around the centre of the tread.
On racing motorcycles "Block pattern" tyres used to be used in the rain. These had wide circular and transverse grooves. Examination of the contact patch in detail suggests that this increases the unit pressure on the surface as the material of the tread and casing has a non-zero Youngs modulus. Conventional wisdom at the time placed a lot of importance on the tyre being new and thus having sharp edges on the blocks. Occasionaly the block pattern was cut in conventional tyres the night before the race. Block patterns probably wouldn't work on aircraft, though, as blocks would probably be torn off the casing during the violent spin-up caused by landing.