How To Protect Your Car from Storm Damage

How To Protect Your Car from Storm Damage

Storms are a somewhat "ever-present" natural phenomenon and can occur anytime, in any weather season. Unfortunately, storms often tend to affect car integrity and appearance severely. In fact, there are very few things that ruin a car's integrity and appearance as thoroughly as weathering. Typically, this weathering process (usually in the form of water or wind damage to cars) takes a lot of time, and it's pretty easy to notice and guide against if you know what to look out for.

During storms, however, the weather is much more intense, and these weathering effects are stronger. So, if you leave your car exposed to the effects of storms, you'll find that the damage to your vehicle can be extensive. This is why it's essential you know how to protect your vehicles from the effects of storms, regardless of the weather or season.

Best Ways to Prevent Storm Damage

Are you looking for tips on "how to protect my car from storm damage?" If you are, read on to discover some practical anti-storm car protection tips.

Properly Shield Your Cars from Direct Storm Contact

Protecting your car from direct exposure to storms is one of the most effective ways to protect your car from storm damage. This is because storms' worst effects on the integrity of cars are usually directly linked to actual physical contact or exposure. So, preventing this direct contact will go a long way to ensure your car remains in perfect condition. Now, there are two general ways you can go about this. They include:

Garage Storage

Do you have a garage? If you do, you should know you have a very effective car protection option on your hands, as a garage is practically the best place to park your car during a hurricane or storm. After a storm forecast warning, parking your car in your garage ensures that you have effectively shielded it from the worst effects storms can have on your car. However, you should know that most garages are not completely weather-proof, so it is still very possible for the storm to affect your car to some extent. In addition, not everyone has access to a garage, so although it offers some measure of car protection, that point is moot if you do not own or have access to a garage. This brings us to the second car anti-weather option; car covers.

Using Car Covers

Car covers are very effective car protection options for several reasons, the chief of which is that they offer excellent protection and can be used indoors and outdoors. Whether or not you have access to a garage, getting a car cover for yourself is a decision you will always be happy you made due to the sheer protective benefits they offer.

You may be wondering, "why should I get a car cover when I can just use a random large cloth to cover my car?" That's an excellent question, and the answer is simple; using any random cloth to cover your car will not guarantee its protection. In fact, the fabric you're using could even end up scratching your car, an outcome opposite to what you were after. On the other hand, car covers have a high-quality build and intelligent design that ensures they can excellently protect your car from weathering. There are waterproof car covers that effectively prevent your cars from getting wet during storms. Usually, these waterproof car covers are also dust-proof and scratch resistant.

Now it is worth mentioning that "wetness" is not the only thing you'll have to worry about and secure against during storms, and this is primarily because there are different kinds of storms, depending on the weather or season. You can have severe/heavy rainfalls usually accompanied by powerful winds (rain storms), hail storms, and even snow storms. While waterproof car covers offer excellent protection in the cases of heavy rainfall and snow storms, they are not suitable for protecting your car during hail storms. You'll need to get a hail cover to protect your car effectively from the effects of a hailstorm.

Hail Covers: Hail covers are a special type of car cover uniquely designed to offer maximum protection from weather elements and hail stones during a hail storm. Usually, people opt to put cardboard and mattresses on their cars and then secure everything with a piece of rock when they get a weather forecast warning of hail. However, this "protection" option will likely end up doing more harm than good because hailstorms are accompanied by strong winds, powerful enough to pick up the rocks you used in securing your hail protection and fling them about. These rocks could end up damaging your car or someone else's. Hail car covers, on the other hand, are designed to provide excellent insulation and cushioning effect against the impact of hail stones on your car, so you won't have to worry about your windows breaking or your car's body having dents. You'll also be able to secure these hail car covers easily, so there'll be no need to risk using rocks to secure them, and you'll still be able to protect the car from hail adequately.

Other Effective Car Protection Measures

In addition to parking your car in a garage and shielding it from storms with a car cover, there are several other things you can do to ensure your car is safe, irrespective of what kind of storm it is. These car protection measures include:

• Always stay updated: Timely information will always be invaluable when looking to protect your car from storms. This is because the only way you can protect against something is to be aware of it in the first place. So, you should always ensure you have easy and quick access to weather forecast channels and important weather update information.

• Store Emergency Supplies: Another important thing to do when preparing for a storm is to stock up on and store emergency supplies like flashlights, jumper cables, matches, spare tires, and tire repair kits in your car and home. This is because you may need some or all of these emergency supplies at some point during the storm or after, so it's better to organize them such that you always know where they are should the need to use them arise.

• Avoid Parking Under Trees or "Low" Areas: Storms tend to be pretty severe in intensity, and it's not uncommon for a tree or electric pole to break and fall during storms, so when you're looking for where to park your car during storm, you'll want to ensure you don't park close to or under any of these. Also, in cases of rain and snow storms, you should avoid parking your car in low areas where water and snow will tend to accumulate. Again, this prevents your vehicle from being flooded or buried by snow.