I am no stranger to driving in some godawful conditions. I have been in rain, sleet wind and snow that would send a lot of people to the shoulder with their hazards flashing but am I alone in noticing that weather recently has somehow upgraded? Would we call this meteo two-point-oh?
Recently I had to make a trip to Toronto area to visit relatives and on our way back the forecast called for rain. I checked NavCanada’s weather site as I often do before driving the 401 and saw that we were in for a long wet drive. The entire front seemed paused in a line right over the highway. I took this in stride and began my drive up Hwy 407 towards Pickering.
The rain was pounding and unstoppable. I stopped at a Canadian tire store to pick up some Rain-X which works like magic in this type of driving and applied it under the canopy of a gas bar. Once we were back underway I entered a sort of twilight zone where it no longer felt like we were driving a car down a highway but more like we were in a submarine ship, diving under, and I am the pilot.
After many hours of this non stop deluge I managed to turn up the 416 and after another 45 minutes the sky was light grey and the rain vanished. Ottawa was spared the wrath, this time.
Perhaps it’s time we start thinking about building an ark?