Should You Walk or Run in the Rain? Scientists Have an Answer

If you’ve ever been caught in a downpour and wondered whether it’s better to walk or run to the car, you’re not alone. Scientists have debated this surprisingly tricky question for decades. The answer? Running generally keeps you drier because you spend less time exposed to the rain.

Why Scientists Studied This Question

Believe it or not, scientists have debated this for years.  If you run you get there faster, so less rain hits you.  But meanwhile you’re slamming more frontwise into the droplets, making them preferentially strike your chest and legs.  If you’d walked, they’d mostly hit your head and shoulders, which offer less surface.

Is this logic correct? Do you get wetter walking or running in the rain?

The Experiment That Settled the Debate

In the late eighties, an Italian physicist calculated that running through a rainstorm would keep you 10% drier than walking.  Barely any difference. Hardly worth the effort, especially since you’d be more likely to slip and fall.  Then, in 1995, a British researcher decided that walking is better because the drenching of your entire front side would negate the slight benefit of getting there faster.

The next year, two North Carolina climatologists put the whole issue to an actual test.  They each wore identical clothing and water-measuring equipment. One of them ran 100 meters through a downpour while the other simultaneously walked.  Result?  The one who walked was 40% wetter.

Bottom line: Run to the car.

But you already instinctively knew that, didn’t you?

Another Curious Question: Is Water Actually Wet? I’ll explain why water—beyond its obvious life-giving properties—is truly astonishing.