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Heat records are being shattered all across the southwest but the mercury doesn’t need to be squirting out the top of the thermometer for it to be deadly dangerous. Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, isn’t even the hottest part of the state. With the weather forecasting triple digits, they decided to prove the point by baking some banana bread on the dash of their cruiser. Their experiment topped out at 105 degrees for the outside temperature. While they ended up concluding cookies work just a touch better, right here, right now, in Morristown, AZ, it’s 107 – on the way to 112 or so and a loaf would probably bake just about perfect.
Heat can be dangerous
Most people don’t realize how deadly dangerous extreme heat can be. All across the southwest, from Palm Springs to Death Valley, temperatures are hitting heights nobody even imagined possible. Yes, it’s true that you can fry an egg on the blacktop. Doing it on the sidewalk is a little harder but has been done.
Some Park Rangers in Tucson, who meet a lot of people who aren’t from around there, wanted to do something memorable to get everyone’s attention. They decided to bake banana bread on the dashboard of their cruiser.
“It’s that time of year again! Cooking in the car, cue theme music!” The helpful Saguaro National Park officials documented the entire experiment on social media, posting their “sun-baked” banana bread tutorial on Facebook.
Your Dashboard Can Get Hot Enough to Bake Banana Breadhttps://t.co/GF6AI0kZHH#WhiskedAway
Don't leave your valuables in a hot car this Summer, because it can get hot enough to literally bake bread. pic.twitter.com/7WPK4A3lFa
— Whisked Away (@GetWhiskedAway) July 4, 2024
No strangers to extreme Arizona heat, the rangers had previously dabbled with recipes for “cookies, bell peppers and other food.” Perfect cookies are no sweat, on a day like they had warming up, but they wanted to try pushing the envelope a little, with more mass.
On June 28, it was locally 97 degrees at 11 a.m. and their cruiser was preheated enough to begin the experiment. They measured the dashboard heat at 163 degrees, about what a “warming” setting is on your oven. They left the patrol car parked in the sun and by 2:00 p.m. the outside temp had maxed out at 105. They regularly see hotter.
Inside the car, it was a sweltering 211 degrees, basically the boiling point for that altitude. Anything inside would be at boiling temperature also. Cooks consider that a “cool oven temperature.” By then, “the tops of the chocolate-freckled bread turned golden.”
Another hour in the oven
The rangers decided to leave their “desert dessert” in the heat a while longer and finally called it done around 3 p.m. As noted on their Facebook page, “the confection’s exterior had been browned” but was just a little bit “squishy on the inside.”
They learned a lot from the attempt but decided in the long run that cookies were “the most ideal option” for your “solar oven on wheels.”
It’s easy to turn the family sedan into an Ez-Bake Oven and a much better way to cook eggs if you’re hungry. The problem with cooking eggs on the sidewalk is that they’re white. The sidewalk, that is, not the eggs.
Red Hills Visitor center at Saguaro National Park West to be closed July 8-17 https://t.co/wn6VgfG4bs #Tucson #Arizona
— Tucson Sentinel (@TucsonSentinel) June 25, 2024
Concrete under intense sunlight reaches about 145 degrees but eggs need 158 degrees of heat to actually cook. Blacktop gets hot enough for that.
Viewers were amazed by the demonstration, one commenting “I bet it smells amazing in the car.” Another queried “When is the dashboard cookbook coming out?” The rangers were quick to point out that they weren’t trying to sell cookbooks. “The experiment doubled as a public service announcement on the perils of leaving kids and animals in a hot car.” People and pets don’t smell wonderful when you pull them out.
“Based on the previous 27 years of data from the National Safety Council, an average of 37 children die each year from heat due to being left in a vehicle. And hundreds of pets due to the same thing according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.” If you see or hear cries, barks or similar coming from a parked car. Don’t hesitate. Grab a large rock and smash a window, fast. Ten minutes can be fatal.
