When driving in poor weather conditions, it is best to slow down, increase your following distance, and keep your headlights on low beam. Those three adjustments handle the majority of weather-related driving risk. But the specifics matter: how much to slow down, how far back to stay, and what to do when your car starts sliding all depend on the type of weather you’re facing.
Why Speed Matters More Than You Think
Wet, icy, or snow-covered roads reduce the friction between your tires and the pavement, sometimes dramatically. On a dry road, your tires grip well enough to stop quickly and hold curves at normal speeds. Add water, and that grip drops fast. Hydroplaning can occur at just 55 mph with as little as 2 millimeters of water on the road surface, roughly the thickness of a nickel. When that happens, a wedge of water builds up in front of the tire and lifts it off the pavement entirely. Your steering and brakes become useless until the tires make contact again.
The fix is straightforward: slow down. There’s no single magic number because hydroplaning depends on water depth, tire condition, road texture, and speed all at once. But reducing your speed gives your tire treads more time to channel water out of the way, keeping rubber on asphalt. On snow or ice, the same principle applies. Lower speeds mean smaller forces acting on your tires, which means they’re less likely to break loose.
How Much Following Distance You Need
On dry pavement, a common guideline is about three to four seconds of space between you and the car ahead. In rain, snow, fog, or ice, double that gap. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recommends doubling your following distance in any adverse condition, and that advice applies to passenger cars just as much as commercial trucks.
To measure, pick a fixed object like a sign or overpass. When the vehicle ahead passes it, count the seconds until you reach the same spot. If you’re getting there in under six to eight seconds during a rainstorm, you’re too close. On ice, even more room is wise since stopping distances can increase by five to ten times compared to dry roads.
Headlights: Low Beam, Not High Beam
In fog, heavy rain, or snow, always use your low beams. High beams seem like the logical choice when visibility drops, but they actually make things worse. The light reflects off water droplets or fog particles and bounces back into your eyes, creating a bright wall of glare that obscures the road ahead. Low beams aim downward and illuminate the pavement in front of you without that blinding reflection. If your vehicle has dedicated fog lights, use those too.
Keeping your headlights on also makes your car visible to other drivers, and low beams automatically activate your taillights, which helps vehicles behind you judge their distance.
Turn Off Cruise Control
This is one of the most overlooked rules of wet-weather driving. Cruise control keeps your vehicle at a constant speed regardless of what’s happening under the tires. If you hit a patch of standing water and begin to hydroplane, cruise control may try to maintain speed or even accelerate, which is exactly the wrong response. With your foot on the gas pedal instead, you can instinctively ease off the throttle the moment you feel traction fading. That small, immediate adjustment can be the difference between a brief slip and a full loss of control.
What to Do If You Start Skidding
Skids happen even to careful drivers. How you respond depends on which tires lose grip.
If your front tires lose traction (the car keeps going straight even though you’ve turned the wheel), ease off the gas and wait. Don’t turn the wheel harder. That extra steering input actually makes the problem worse by pushing the tires beyond their grip limit. Reduce your steering angle slightly, let the front tires slow down and regain traction, and they’ll start biting again.
If your rear tires slide out (the back end swings to one side), steer in the direction the rear is sliding. This is the classic “steer into the skid” advice. If the back swings left, turn the wheel left. The goal is to keep the front of the car pointed ahead of the rear. Once the rear tires catch again, straighten the wheel promptly, or you’ll swing the other direction.
If all four tires are sliding and the car is drifting sideways but still pointed roughly where you want to go, the best move is to do nothing. Keep the wheel steady, stay off the brakes, and wait for traction to return. Sudden inputs in a four-wheel slide tend to make things worse.
Driving in High Winds
Strong crosswinds create a different kind of hazard. Keep both hands on the wheel and reduce your speed. Gusts can push your vehicle sideways, sometimes enough to drift into an adjacent lane. Keep extra space between you and cars beside you so a sudden gust doesn’t cause a sideswipe.
If you drive an SUV, van, truck, or anything towing a trailer, take extra caution. High-profile vehicles catch wind like a sail and are far more prone to being shoved off course or, in extreme cases, tipped over. Be especially alert when passing or being passed by large trucks, since the wind shadow between vehicles can shift abruptly as you clear the truck’s length.
Check Your Tires Before the Weather Hits
Your tires are the only part of your car touching the road, and their condition determines how well every other safety system works. Tread depth is the critical number. Tires with less than 2/32 of an inch of tread remaining fail safety inspections in most states and lose their ability to channel water effectively. But traction starts declining well before that legal minimum. Many safety experts suggest replacing tires at 4/32 of an inch for adequate wet-weather grip.
You can check tread depth with a penny. Insert it into a groove with Lincoln’s head pointing down. If you can see the top of his head, your tread is at or below 2/32 of an inch and needs replacing. Tire pressure matters too: underinflated tires are more prone to hydroplaning because the center of the tread lifts slightly, reducing the contact patch.
Keep a Winter Emergency Kit in Your Car
If conditions deteriorate to the point where you’re stranded, a basic emergency kit can make the difference between discomfort and danger. The National Weather Service recommends keeping the following in your vehicle during winter months:
- Warmth: blankets or a sleeping bag, extra hats, gloves, and a warm jacket
- Visibility: flashlight with extra batteries, road flares or reflective triangles
- Traction: a bag of sand or kitty litter to spread under stuck tires, plus a small snow shovel
- Sustenance: bottled water, granola bars or dried nuts
- Recovery: booster cables, ice scraper with brush, first aid kit, cell phone charger
Most of this fits in a small duffel bag in your trunk. You’ll likely never need it, but if you’re stuck on a highway shoulder in a snowstorm waiting for help, a blanket and a charged phone are worth their weight in gold.