The claim

Walking in the Rain Keeps You Drier Than Running

The facts

Caught in a downpour without an umbrella, most people pick up their pace. But an old wives’ tale advises that a person who runs in the rain gets wetter.

When someone runs, more of the body is exposed to more droplets of water, the argument goes. But several studies have put this claim to the test and found it wanting.

In one, published in The European Journal of Physics in 1987, an Italian physicist determined that if the distance is short enough, sprinting gets a person less wet than walking — but only by about 10 per cent. Translation: running isn’t worth the effort.

Another study, published in 1995 by a British researcher, found that it made no difference whether a person walked or sprinted.

Perhaps the final word came from two meteorologists at the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina. Suspecting that earlier studies overestimated the average walking pace, they adjusted for certain variables: the effects of wind and the fact that runners tend to lean forward, shielding the front of their bodies but exposing the back.

The researchers used themselves as guinea pigs. Over a distance of 100 metres, or about 330 feet, they found that running in heavy rain kept them drier by as much as 40 per cent.

The bottomline

Running in the rain probably keeps you drier than walking.