National Weather Service Bakes Biscuits, to Make Point

To give everyone an idea of what this week's heat can do to humans and pets in cars, the National Weather Service in Omaha demonstrated its effect on biscuit dough. A pan with four future biscuits was placed on the dashboard of a car parked in the sun, the Kansas City Star reports. The results weren't great, though they technically were edible. After 45 minutes, the biscuits began rising, the Weather Service tweeted. At one hour, the pan was 175 degrees—it topped out at 185 degrees—and the tops of the biscuits had risen to 153 degrees. After baking for eight hours, they were brought to a volunteer taste-tester. The outside was "actually edible" but the insides doughy.

The car definitely got hot. The Weather Service said the backseat was in the shade and still reached 144 degrees. But it wasn't quite biscuit-baking hot; Betty Crocker recommends an oven temperature of 450 degrees. One poster said cookies will work, adding, "plus your car will smell amazing." But the Weather Service was serious about its warning. "Don't be a statistic," a tweet said. The National Safety Council says about 38 children a year die after being left in hot cars, per CNN. (Death Valley rangers are tired of cleaning up after the eggs-on-the-sidewalk experiment.)