Make the “weather” events more unique rather than just raining..For example add a sandstorm that makes your vision limited and/or blurry, heatwave: The Texas sun is brutal so you need to not stay long under the sun.
You guys can even add items to help you in specific weathers. Go crazy with it. It might feel annoying but it IS infact better than just rain and makes the gameplay more interesting and having a constant threat the player needs to worry about to not make the “long” trip boring