If you've ever driven on a highway during a heavyrain, you know about the danger of skidding. This"waterskiing" on the road is technically calledhydroplaning, and it happens when water comesbetween the road and your tires, causing you to losetraction and go out of control. Your car is less likelyto slide around when the road is dry because thereis enough friction between your tires and the roadto keep you steady, even at high speeds.
But when it rains, a layer of water builds up between your tires and the road. This waterinterferes with the friction that helps your tires grip the road surface. This is where the treadson your tires come in. If the road you are driving along is covered with water, the pressure ofthe tire against the road surface causes the water to be squeezed up into the tire treads. Thesetreads help your tires pump water out from underneath the tire so that the rubber can be incontact with the road, thus creating the friction that will stabilize your car.
The faster you go, the more water your tires have to remove. That's why your car may nothydroplane at thirty miles per hour, but might at sixty miles per hour. In fact, at highwayspeeds, during hard rains, each tire must pump away about a gallon of water every second.This is hard for tires to do if they are old and have treads that are worn down. When there isn'tenough space in the tire's grooves, water can't find a place to go and so it creates a layer oflubrication, causing you to do the equivalent to waterskiing on the highway.