Things to know when driving in wet conditions and preventing hydroplaning

All-season tires

When you drive in rainy weather, you must take some safety precautions. You should make sure that the windshield wipers are in good condition and are functioning well. The blades shouldn’t leave any streaks on the windshield. You need to ensure that you have a sufficient amount of washer fluid in the container. Then check that all the lights are functioning properly, especially the emergency blinkers, and ensure the brakes are functioning properly. Finally, it is important to have premium tires in good condition and have the correct tire pressure. You also need to make sure that you have already changed away from your winter tires and mounted the all-season or all-weather tires.

Using premium tires is probably the best protection against hydroplaning. There are many tires on the market, and there have been many advances in the tires’ capacity to avoid losing control due to hydroplaning. The all-season tires made by Nokian Tyres, the Nokian Tyres One, have an innovative design with grooves that are placed latterly so that they can store more water in the area between the road and the tire surface. They also have polished main grooves, which help accelerate the flow of water that is moved within the grooves to the sides.

It is always important to maintain your premium tires with proper tire pressure. When tires wear out, the tires’ wet grip and hydroplaning properties deteriorate, and the risk for accidents due to hydroplaning increases. The danger of hydroplaning can be felt when you try to steer, as it will become difficult to control the car. You can also feel that the car jumps sideways; this can happen if you have bad tires or if they are in bad condition. Even when driving with new tires, you can’t eliminate the risk of hydroplaning. Having good tires can significantly reduce the risk and reduce your speed if you approach roads with a lot of surface water or raining very heavily.  When you end up in a situation like this, you will need to keep a long distance from the cars in front of you and reduce the speed.

Even with new tires properly inflated, the truth is the odds of having a collision are greater in wet weather. There are many reasons for this other than the risk of hydroplaning; some accidents are caused by the fact that hard rain limits visibility, challenging even for the most experienced drivers.

Some things that can help are to keep the windshield clean at all times, use the defroster fan for the front window, and set the defrost heater for the side mirrors and back window. This will prevent fog from blocking the view. The combination of having the car and the tires in optimal conditions will always help you improve your safety as you drive in wet conditions. Using premium tires that have proven that they are great in wet conditions with excellent wet grip and great at preventing hydroplaning will help a lot.

For more information on all-season tires, visit https://www.nokiantires.com

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