Driving in a heavy rain and hail storm (onboard video)

[Costas Athan]

Here is some fairly heavy rain, although I have driven through heavier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNTTf6dIygA

Skip to 2:00 or so for the goodies. If water isn't sheeting across your windscreen even with the wipers on high, it's not "heavy".

But it is! Watch carefully the bottom of the windshield from 7:30 mark onwards on 1080p and full screen. Wipers are on high. Is that just a sprinkle as many guys say? In my opinion not. And I'm doing no more than 30 mph. I mention this because it is really important. If you are going at 100 mph even a moderate rain can decrease visibility because the wipers don't have the time to remove the water, but if you slow down you'll see the real intensity of the rain.

 

[jagec]

But it is! Watch carefully the bottom of the windshield from 7:30 mark onwards on 1080p and full screen. Wipers are on high. Is that just a sprinkle as many guys say? In my opinion not. And I'm doing no more than 30 mph. I mention this because it is really important. If you are going at 100 mph even a moderate rain can decrease visibility because the wipers don't have the time to remove the water, but if you slow down you'll see the real intensity of the rain.

People are exaggerating somewhat. The rain in your video IS heavy, it's just that it can get quite a bit heavier in other parts of the world.😉

 

[Costas Athan]

People are exaggerating somewhat. The rain in your video IS heavy, it's just that it can get quite a bit heavier in other parts of the world.😉

Yeah! That's what I'm saying. It gets heavier in Greece too, but not really often. Indeed there are countries where the rain is heavier almost constantly. But in a scale of 1 to 10, if the intensity of the rain in your video gets a 10 I would give a 7 or 8 to the one in my video. I just have the feeling that anyone else that posted till now would rate it with a 2-4...

Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that in your case if the rain was more intense the weather conditions would make driving impossible. Am I right?

 

[Ferzerp]

People are exaggerating somewhat. The rain in your video IS heavy, it's just that it can get quite a bit heavier in other parts of the world.😉

There is nothing special about that rain, and hundreds of thousands of people drive through similar levels of rain with no issue at all during the rainy seasons all over the place.

 

[Costas Athan]

There is nothing special about that rain, and hundreds of thousands of people drive through similar levels of rain with no issue at all during the rainy seasons all over the place.

I didn't claim that they aren't. But that doesn't make the the rain less heavy.

 

[mafia]

Lol. European weather is so pussified. Here in the midwest (of USA) the OP's video is considered "light drizzle".

 

[Ferzerp]

I didn't claim that they aren't. But that doesn't make the the rain less heavy.

It isn't heavy at all.

You drove your car in a light-medium rain. Nothing else.

Congrats I guess?

 

[Costas Athan]

Lol. European weather is so pussified. Here in the midwest (of USA) the OP's video is considered "light drizzle".

You are absolutely right. Here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTGaLyi8HZc is an example of last year's floods in Ileia's plain, the immediate result of a "light drizzle". I have already written it. There aren't hurricanes in Europe (fortunately!) but there are less severe weather phenomena that are very catastrophic too. By the way here --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm#Classification you can read the strict meteorological definition of a storm. Do a search with that criteria and you'll find out many events that are classified as storms occur in Europe. Well, maybe these events don't fall in your definition of a storm.

It isn't heavy at all.

You drove your car in a light-medium rain. Nothing else.

Congrats I guess?

I didn't claim anywhere that this is a unique video of driving in the rain. You can find thousands on YouTube. I don't know how you reached that conclusion, but read the title and the definition word by word and you'll find out that I never made that claim! By the way, if I had made that claim my own video would prove me wrong because it shows other vehicles moving through the rain and the hail. I can recall at least a truck and a bus. There is also a car that has pulled over. And I think that gives an indication how should the severity of the rain been considered. In my opinion it is a storm heavy enough to make a small percentage (10% - 15%) of the drivers to stop their cars on the side of the road. Sure there are more severe storms that will make the percentage increase till it reaches 100, but I won't change my mind on the severity of the rain featured in the video, mo matter how many people claim it is a drizzle. It happened no more than three weeks ago and I can remember vividly that it was impossible to drive over 40 mph without a serious risk of missing a turn and I also remember very well how hard was to see the edges of the road and the lane marks. (I have already mentioned that GoPro sees better than the human eye... so the real conditions were a bit worse than you can see in the video.) And yes for me this is a heavy storm. Would you characterize a 7 Richter earthquake a minor, not worth mentioning event, because earthquakes over 9 Richter have been recorded? (Keep in mind the Richter scale is logarithmic). I don't think so. In the same manner I characterize that rain heavy, without ignoring the fact that there are worse weather phenomena!