Sadly there are still many erroneous myths and misconceptions out there surrounding the idea of leaving pets in parked cars. These contribute to dangerous practices that result in the heat stroke cases and deaths that my colleagues are seeing on a daily basis and that we’re all read about in the news and online all-too-frequently. This article should debunk these misconceptions and put a stop to these dangerous practices. Use it to educate yourself and protect your pets, and share it to help educate others. The more people we can get to recognize the inherent dangers of these misconceptions and practices, the more injuries and deaths from heat stroke we can all help to prevent. The Reality: Multiple studies have shown that leaving the windows cracked has only a minimal, and overall insignificant protective benefit. As you can see, while cracking the windows does have some effect on slowing down the temperature rise inside a car, that effect is minimal and it's not enough to prevent the temperature inside a car from quickly rising to deadly levels.

Tips about Pets in Cars: Do not leave your pets or kids alone in parked cars. Cracking windows, short periods of time, relatively mild days, leaving water, or running the air conditioner do not make a parked car a safe place for a pet to be alone. Educate yourself and your loved ones to protect more pets.Download the #HotHappensFast poster The Reality: Whenever you run into a store there are plenty of factors that are outside of your control and which can prolong your time away from your dog. ac unit not reaching set temperatureConsider a longer than usual check-out line, bumping into a friend or neighbor, forgetting something from your shopping list, or even a slip and fall. air conditioner window unit not cooling roomThere really are many unforeseen things that could realistically and significantly delay your return to your car. cost to replace an ac unit

And that delay can result in your dog suffering (and potentially dying) from heat stroke. The next time you dart into a store for a “quick shopping trip”, time yourself. Do this exercise a few times and see how long “a few minutes” can actually be. Then keep the following numbers in mind… Now imagine what this would equate to on a relatively mild 80°F day. Imagine what it would be on one of the 100°F days that are common in certain areas, and are becoming more commonplace in others. The results can be devastating – quickly! The Reality: Temperatures in the low 70s are plenty hot enough to cause a dog left in a parked car to develop and suffer from heat stroke. In fact, the study cited above was conducted in San Francisco on a series of relatively mild days. On one of the 72°F days during the study the temperature inside the test car reached 93°F in 10 minutes, 105°F in 20 minutes, 110°F in 30 minutes, and 119°F in 60 minutes! Plenty hot enough to cause heat stroke.

Not only is 70°F warm enough to result in heat stroke, even temperatures in the low 60s can be dangerous for some pets. This is because certain cats and dogs – based on factors such as breed, weight, existing medical conditions, and several other factors – are actually more sensitive to heat than others, and therefore at even greater risk of developing and suffering from heat stroke. You can learn more about these “predisposing factors” here, in our Heat Stroke in Cats and Dogs: Is My Pet At Risk? The Reality: Though leaving water is a good thing, as it can help to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion, it does very little to stave off heat stroke in parked cars. The reason is that dogs rely mostly on the evaporative cooling effects of panting to get rid of excess heat, and their ability to do so effectively is quickly overwhelmed in a hot, stuffy car… regardless of whether or not they have a water bowl in front of them. The Reality: Air conditioner compressors and car engines fail, and dogs knock into and inadvertently press and hit buttons and switches.

Sadly there are plenty of cases of dogs dying when the car air conditioner failed or a dog bumped into and switched off the air conditioner. When air conditioner compressors fail, the air blowing into the car from the vents often turns from cool to hot, greatly speeding up the temperature rise within the car. Many of these sad cases involved police dogs who were in K9 patrol cars with back-up alarms and other failsafe mechanisms… If it can happen in these scenarios, you’d be kidding yourself to think that it couldn’t happen to your dog and in your car. So while leaving your car air conditioner running can help to protect your dog from heat stroke, it can also provide a false sense of security and it can even backfire. Want to be part of the solution in helping prevent heat stroke? Download the #HotHappensFast poster and start spreading awareness!We’ve all experienced getting into a parked car on a sunny day. It feels like you’re climbing inside an industrial-size oven, and all you can think about is getting the A/C running to cool it down before you get baked.

But how hot is it, really? Why does a car interior feel hotter than pretty much any other place on earth? And what can you do to keep it cool? For starters, you’re not imagining it. A parked car interior really is the hottest place most people will visit in their lives (at least visit fully-clothed, if saunas are your thing). The reason a car without cold air conditioning is hotter than the air around it — and hotter than a house or office without A/C — is because it really is a greenhouse on wheels. Other than the roof and support pillars, the top half of a car’s passenger compartment is mostly made of glass. Glass allows sunlight to pass through freely. Once inside the car, much of the light is absorbed by the seats and dash turning it into heat. Heat does not easily pass back through glass, so it is trapped inside the car. A parked car will always end up hotter than the air around it—usually much hotter. A house or office with windows will also experience this greenhouse effect, but they have a much larger interior space to heat up.

They also generally have a smaller percentage of glass letting light through (unless you literally live in a glass house), and only a few windows at a time are facing the sun. As a result, they don’t heat up as much, and are easier to keep cool — a typical car A/C is about as powerful as the units used to keep a small house or apartment cool. So how high can the temperature inside your car go? The exact answer will vary, of course, depending on the type of car, where it is parked, the time of day, etc. But there have been several studies to find the average temperature increase, and the results are uncomfortable: The fastest temperature rise occurs in the first few minutes. Within just 10 minutes, the temperature can increase between 10 and 20 degrees. Over the first 30 minutes, the temperature increases by an average of over one degree per minute. If you park and go inside a store for 30 minutes on a 90-degree day, you’ll come back to a car that is over 120 degrees.

After one hour, the average car is 43 degrees hotter than the outside temperature. After 90 minutes, the average temperature difference is 48 degrees. On a 90-degree day, that equates to 138 degrees—higher than the hottest outdoor temperature ever recorded on earth. Interestingly, these temperature increases are roughly the same no matter what the outdoor temperature is. Even on a beautiful 75-degree day, the temperature after 90 minutes will be over 120 degrees. If you’re in a desert heat wave and the outside temperature is 110, expect a car interior around 160 degrees. Since these are averages, there’s about a 50-50 chance that your car could get even hotter. The paint color, interior upholstery color, amount of window tinting, amount of shade, direction you are parked, and city where you are located can all affect whether your car is below or above average. You can even find recipes for car-baked cookies: some cars really can feel like an oven. Having a cold A/C to quickly overcome this heat is important, both for comfort and for safety.