Rangers ‘bake’ banana bread in scorching car, Arizona photos show. How’d it turn out?
Arizona summers are so hot that you can bake banana bread in your car.
Rangers at Saguaro National Park proved that with their own experiment, park officials said in a June 28 Facebook post.
“It’s that time of year again! Cooking in the car, cue theme music!” rangers wrote in the post.
They set out two loaves of uncooked banana bread on a dashboard at about 11 a.m. It was 97 degrees outside and the dashboard temperature was 163 degrees.
The loaves began to rise as they cooked in the scorching heat.
As temperatures reached 105 degrees outside at about 2 p.m., the dashboard temperature inside the vehicle was recorded at 211 degrees, rangers said.
They took the loaves out about an hour later.
“It was still a bit squishy on the inside,” rangers said. “So far, we think cookies make for the most ideal option for cooking in the car.”
Rangers baked cookies on a dashboard in 2021, McClatchy News reported. And it’s long been a tradition for people to try frying eggs on sidewalks during Arizona’s gruesome heatwaves.
But it’s not wise to eat these outdoor creations.
Eggs need to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees before they are safe to eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Park rangers tried baking banana bread in a car to highlight how quickly a vehicle’s internal temperature can rise.
“You know what’s not an ideal thing to cook in the car? People, and pets,” the national park wrote.
A hot car can become life threatening to people and pets within 10 to 20 minutes, rangers said.
On average, 37 children younger than 15 years old die each year from heat stroke after being left in a hot vehicle, according to the National Safety Council.
Hundreds of pets also die of heat each year from being left in vehicles, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
