Feeling hot hot hot

If I were to walk outside of my office, I'm pretty certain it would feel like something between the surface of the sun and the fires of Mount Doom. According to the Capital Weather Gang, it feels like 98 with humidity and is easily one of the hottest days this year for the DC metro area. Between you and me, I think I'll spend most of the day in our walk in refrigerator. Figure 1: Washington, DC.

I, for one, am not looking forward to hopping back into my car after work! But this got me thinking - how hot does it get in a car in this kind of heat?

According to Jan Null, adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, the average sedan (when it's 90 degrees outside) can get to 124 degrees within 30 minutes and 133 degrees within an hour. To put that into context, the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on planet earth was 134 degrees at Death Valley National Park, California. To combat these insane temperatures, most people recommend opening the car windows a tad to allow some of this hot air to escape. But does this really work?

In a study published about a decade ago in Pediatrics, McLaren et al. found that cracking your car windows does not significantly reduce the maximum temperature reached or the rate at which these temperatures increase. So there you have it - that tip your dad told you about opening the windows slightly doesn't work. The solution? Park your car in the shade! That direct sunlight is a major reason why the temperature rises so quickly in your car.

Figure 2: A raging inferno enclosed in a small, metal box

And under no circumstances should you ever, EVER leave a living creature inside a vehicle for an extended period of time, especially in this sort of weather! Stay cool, my friends!