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If a car is parked in the sun on a hot summer day, its dashboard can hit 160 degrees in about an hour. Researchers from Arizona State University and the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine have completed a study to compare how different types of cars warm up on hot days when exposed to different amounts of shade and sunlight for different periods of time.
The research team also took into account how these differences would affect the body temperature of a hypothetical 2-year-old child left in a vehicle on a hot day. The study quantifies temperature differences inside vehicles parked in the shade and the sun, but it also makes clear that even parking a vehicle in the shade can be lethal to a small child,” said Nancy Selover, an Arizona State climatologist and research professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
Researchers used six vehicles for the study: Two identical silver mid-size sedans, two identical silver economy cars, and two identical silver minivans. During three hot summer days with temperatures in the 100s in Tempe, Arizona, researchers moved the cars from sunlight to shade for different periods of time throughout the day. Researchers measured interior air temperature and surface temperatures throughout different parts of the day.
For vehicles parked in the sun for one hour, the average cabin temperature hit 116 degrees in one hour. Dash boards averaged 157 degrees, steering wheels 127 degrees, and seats 123 degrees in one hour. For vehicles parked in the shade, interior temperatures were closer to 100 degrees after one hour. Dash boards averaged 118 degrees, steering wheels 107 degrees and seats 105 degrees after one hour.
The different types of vehicles tested warmed up at different rates, with the economy car warming faster than the mid-size sedan and minivan. Age, weight, health problems and other factors, including clothing, will affect how and when heat becomes deadly. In the study, the researchers used data to model a hypothetical 2-year old boy’s body temperature.
The team found that a child trapped in a car in the study’s conditions could reach that temperature in about an hour if a car is parked in the sun, and just under two hours if the car is parked in the shade. Internal injuries can begin at temperatures below 104 degrees, and some heatstroke survivors live with brain and organ damage.
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