It has been really, really windy here for the past two days. Yesterday, my mileage was about 10mpg off and I could feel the car being held up by the wind when going through areas that I can normally get into a long, sustained glide.

Today, I found a semi to follow and my mileage was off by a bit (about 2mpg), but not much.

Do you have any tips or tricks to use in windy weather?

Drive with the wind, and if you can't then plan routes that allow you to tack into the wind.

Another one that works is to get behind a truck and allow them to punch a hole for you to follow.

Could slow down?

Or check wind: http://www.wunderground.com/US/Regio...WindSpeed.html

Looks like a good day to drive (or sail) South

I haven't found anything...

It's been super windy here lately too. There is nothing worse than driving to a bike ride with a heavy head wind (and a bike on the roof), only to find that the wind has switched directions during the ride so I have a heavy head wind on the way home too...

Last weekend, I took surface streets through neighborhoods home instead of the faster, more exposed roads just so I wasn't fighting the wind as much.

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

@ OrientExpress: This is going to sound like a stupid question, but how do you tack in a car? I did try the following a truck thing and it worked pretty well. I actually went through the same toll booth as him instead of the fastrak lane, so I could stay behind him....had no idea that it took them a while to get through the toll booth.

@ Spartybrutus: thank you for the URL. I am not sure that I can slow down much more without getting other drivers really, really PO'd. I already am at about 10% below the limit, stay in the right hand lane and I will usually get at least one person every day that will get a foot off of my bumper (trying to make me go faster I assume) for a little while until they realize that I am not going to speed up and the other lane is completely open.

@ Kristian: So far I haven't gotten the headwinds in both directions...that would suck.

You might consider side roads as part of your trip if possible. There are often high trees and/or buildings, acting as a wind break.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Drive backwards if possible.