Weather Authority: How to prepare for bad sun glare
PHILADELPHIA - Have you noticed that the sun glare has really been bad lately? If you have, you are not alone. It turns out this is the time of the year when we get our worst sun glare.
Here’s why: the sun stays lower in the sky this time of the year. This is also why it’s colder these days. The sun doesn’t warm up the ground as much if it’s lower in the sky.
The sun is at its lowest position in the sky around the first day of winter. Because of this, sun glare is particularly bad around sunrise and sunset in November, December, and January.
With sunrise at 7:15 a.m. these days and Sunset around 4:35 p.m., be prepared for bad sun glare between 7:00-7:45 a.m. and between 4:00-5:00 p.m.
These times for bad sun glare just so happen to coincide with rush hour when there are more vehicles on the road.
Now, there are a few things you can do to plan for sun glare.
Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Brent Miller’s biggest tip is to "invest in polarized sunglasses." He says polarized sunglasses are designed to greatly reduce glare.
Polarized sunglasses also help when you’re driving on rainy days. It sounds counterintuitive to wear sunglasses on a rainy day, but Corporal Miller says polarized sunglasses reduce glare reflected by headlights during wet and cloudy conditions. But don’t just wear any sunglasses during these conditions, they need to be polarized.
If you’re driving and the sun glare is awful, make sure you increase the distance between you and the car in front of you—give much more room than you’d normally give.
Use your sun visor and eliminate all distractions inside the car: it’s so important that road has 100% of your focus during times of bad sun glare.
According to PennDOT data, "there were 281 crashes with a prime factor of glare in 2020 [across Pennsylvania], resulting in 1 fatality" says PennDOT’s Jennifer Kuntch.
Jennifer echoes Corporal Miller’s tips, and she also adds that "drivers can prepare for the glare by removing clutter from their sun visors and keeping the inside of their vehicle's windshield clean [in addition to the outside of your windshield].
So, if you haven’t cleaned the windshield inside your car in a while, this is a good reason to get out the glass cleaner.
We bring up these tips because your Weather Authority expects a sunny week ahead. Get the latest Weather Authority forecast.
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