Snow and ice aren’t the only things you need to worry about when driving in winter. A low and bright sun can be dazzling, which could make collisions and other incidents more likely.
In this post we’ll discuss how you can prevent sun glare when driving in winter.
Why Is Sun Glare When Driving So Bad In Winter?
In the winter months, the Earth’s axis is tilted as it orbits the Sun. This tilt causes the sun to sit lower in the sky across the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it does not rise as high as it does during other times of year. As a result, sunlight is more likely to shine directly into drivers’ eyes, particularly during morning and evening journeys.
How To Prevent Sun Glare While Driving in Winter
The only way to outright prevent sun glare while driving in winter would be through only driving on dull days, or at night. But this might not be practical, and driving after dark can bring its own risks too.
Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do which might help to reduce the effects of glare.
Assess Visibility and Drive Carefully
This one might sound obvious, but it’s worth mentioning: If your visibility’s affected in any way, whether it’s by dazzling sunlight or rain, fog, ice, or snow, then you should aim to drive as carefully as possible.
Reduce your speed where necessary and increase the distance between you and the vehicle in front. The aim is to stay safe while giving yourself more time to react to hazards if visibility becomes impaired.
Avoid reacting to pressure from other drivers. Focus on maintaining a safe, predictable driving style that matches the road and visibility conditions. It’s much better to be safe, and you’ll probably find that most drivers are driving just as carefully as you are anyway.
Use Your Sun Visor
If the sun’s at a high enough angle in the sky, your car’s visor should block most, if not all, of the glare. You can also adjust the passenger visor if additional glare is entering through the side of the windscreen. Your visor, though, might not be so useful if the sun’s so low in the sky that it’s shining directly in front of you, or behind you.
Wear Your Sunglasses
Some newer drivers might feel reluctant to wear sunglasses, as they feel they reduce visibility. But sunglasses can actually improve your visibility on bright sunny days.
True, cheaper sunglasses are just fitted with tinted glass, which can affect your visibility through making everything darker. But high quality polarised sunglasses are tinted to a degree. Instead of simply making everything darker, they actually block the sunlight at certain angles. So you get the best of both worlds: Full visibility with no glare.
Just be sure to take your sunglasses off as the day gets darker!
Keep Your Windscreen Clean
Any dirt on moisture on the inside or outside of your windscreen can refract sunlight, which can make glare even worse. So keep your windscreen clean, inside and out. And make sure it’s thoroughly clean, as any leftover streaks or smears from your windscreen cleaner could also cause you problems.
Stay Safe While Driving In Winter
You’ll find loads of guides on our site to help you stay safe on the roads this winter:
- How to get your car ready for winter
- Winter driving tips for new drivers
- How to quickly demist your windscreen
- How to stop your windscreen freezing
- Do you need winter tyres?
Finally, when driving in the winter, you’ll be able to drive with much more peace of mind if you have comprehensive car insurance to cover you in the event of an incident.
