Heat Safety and Vehicles: How Quickly the Temperature Can Rise Inside Your Vehicle

Each year dozens of children and pets die in vehicles left unattended across the country. According to noheatstroke.org, four children have died so far in 2020 from vehicular heatstroke. A total of 853 children have died since 1998. Every single one of those deaths were preventable.

We may tend to think more about heat safety during the heart of summer, when temperatures are well into the 90s and heat index over the triple digit mark. And while high heat and humidity can be a dangerous combination, heat dangers are still high on less humid days when the temperatures are only in the 70s and low 80s. Even on a day when the outside temperature is 70 degrees, the temperature inside your car can warm as much as 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. That means when you get inside, it will feel more like 90 degrees.

When the outside temperature warms to near 80 degrees, the temperature inside your vehicle could warm as high as 100 degrees in just 10 minutes, and over 100 degrees in 20 minutes. Warm the outside temperature up another 10 degrees, to 90 degrees, the temperature inside your car warms even further.

Shortwave radiation from the sun warms the vehicle by warming the things inside your car, such as seats, the dashboard,steering wheel, etc. Those objects then give off longwave radiation which then gets trapped inside the vehicle, just like a greenhouse. That's why it is important that on these warm sunny days to never leave children or pets inside your car, even if it is going to be for a short time. As temperatures warm this Spring and Summer remember the phrase, 'Beat the heat, check the back seat'.