A hot car is no place for a child or pet… or banana bread, unless you like your baked goods a little on the raw side. (saguaronationalpark/Instagram)
Disclaimer: While this article is baked with the finest facts, it does also contain some pieces of chocolate-y satire. Or those could be raisins.
Sitting in a hot car during the Arizona summer doesn’t just feel like an oven, it actually is an oven. This point was demonstrated when Saguaro National Park in Tucson recently baked banana bread inside a vehicle to show how insanely hot it can get.
As temperatures climb worldwide and break records, Arizona continues to set its own heat landmarks, whether for the hottest individual days or for sustained scorching heat over weeks and months. How hot is it there? It’s so hot that there was a comedy show scheduled for people to tell “It’s so hot” jokes, but no one showed up because it was too hot to leave the house.
Saguaro National Park was baking as part of its social media public service announcement about the dangers of leaving children or pets in cars. While outside temperatures can exceed 100 degrees, the insides of cars can quickly surpass 200 degrees and be life-threatening. It puts into perspective that seemingly unbearable 92-degree heat wave in your neck of the woods.
The Arizona heat during the summer is really bananas, and Saguaro National Park has the bread to prove it. (saguaronationalpark/Instagram)
If someone hears a cry, yell, or bark coming from a parked car, officials say they should call authorities immediately and follow instructions to help further. Saguaro National Park noted that, according to studies, an average of 37 children die annually in the U.S. from being in an overheated car, and hundreds of pets die annually from the same cause.
As part of its efforts to spread the word about how hot cars can get, the park has baked cookies and bell peppers in previous years before this year’s banana bread. They admitted that this year’s bread ended up “a bit squishy on the inside” and that cookies have been the most successful experiment so far.
A saguaro cactus and a sunset in Saguruo National Park, where extreme car heat can bake desserts but be dangerous for living beings. (Saguaro Pictures/Wikimedia Commons)
“People like to talk about the negative effects of climate change and extreme heat,” said a park goer with a sunburn that looked deep and painful, “but few people mention that it’s easier to bake sweets in cars and outside. Doesn’t that save money on kitchen appliances? Think about it.”
The park did not say what treats they might consider baking next summer in a car, so it could be anything from brownies to boysenberry pie to plum cobbler. An anxious nation will have to wait to find out.
