The Potentially Fatal Reality of Leaving Anyone in a Car on Days Like These

Editor's Note: This story first appeared on TE Patch in July of 2011, on a day which looked and felt much like this scorching day in May. It's a good reminder of just how quickly a car parked in the sun can turn dangerous or deadly.

You're just running into a store for a 'few minutes' and figure it's really not as bad as the newscasters warn to leave someone in the car just while you run in. Simply put, you're not "that guy" or "that mom" right? 

Take a look at the reality of how fast the interior of a car can heat up to lethal temperatures. We parked the T-E 'Patchmobile' (a very standard four-door black compact with tinted windows) in the parking lot of Paoli Shopping Center.  We placed an easy to read thermometer on the front seat (much easier to photograph from outside in the front seat than in the back). And for the point of illustration, a second thermometer was places on the dashboard.

The temperature inside the car jumped from a dangerous 92 degrees at 3:40 p.m.(within 30 seconds of turning off the full blast air conditioner) to a seering 104 degrees within just 10 minutes and rocketed to a potentially deadly 118 degrees at 4 p.m. Just 30 minutes after closing the doors and windows the temperature inside the car was a hellacious 120 degrees.

The dashboard temperature change was even more dramatic. At 3:40 p.m. the thermometer read a steamy 98 degrees. At 3:50 p.m. the mercury had literally topped out at over 120... in just 10 minutes. While no one obviously sits on the vinyl dashboard of a car, you don't want to leave anything like sunglasses or crayons on the dash.