Remember those “it’s so hot” jokes that Jay Leno used to do on The Tonight Show? Oh, you don’t know who Jay Leno is and I’m getting older? Got it.
Well, an old entertainer that you’ve never heard of used to start out a series of jokes by saying “it’s so hot,” then elaborating on how how it is. This video below would certainly be a good punch line for one of those classic set-it-up, knock-it-down bits, though it’s also a little bit scary when you think about it.
Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah posted to their social media platforms about how leaving things in a car during the summer can be dangerous. It seems like every year, the same warnings about not leaving living things in a hot car go out by news stations, and the same tragedies always somehow occur.
So Zion National Park decided to shake things up a bit, and instead of putting out a boring PSA about how hot the inside of your car can get in the summer heat, they decided to actually show you in a pretty memorable, unbelievable way.
Rangers decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies on the dashboard of a vehicle in Zion National Park, just to show people how serious the heat trapped into a car can be. The video’s commentary states:
“Zion is so hot, your car can feel like an oven. Literally. We baked cookies on a car dashboard to prove it.
We actually tried to show you the temperature on this thermometer, but it melted in the car and broke. Anyways, it wasn’t long before the cookies started to flatten out and firm up.”
Wow, the plastic thermometer just straight up melted like it was in the famous The Persistence of Memory painting (the one with all the clocks melting, Salvador Dalí, look it up).
It’s really quite hard to believe that something like this can be possible, but thanks to Zion National Park’s social team, we all now know that your car can double as an extra oven during the summer if you need it to.
The overlaying audio in the video continues:
“In total, it took about three hours for the cookies to bake, and honestly, this batch came out a little crunchy. And while a car in Zion can be a good substitute for an oven, it can be very dangerous to animals and humans in a matter of minutes.
Make sure to take anything out of your car that you wouldn’t want to bake. And if you decide to bake cookies, make sure the ingredients are fully cooked and safe to consume before sharing.”
So we’ve gotten to the point in human existence where 1) its hot enough to bake things in our vehicles and 2) in order for people to fully comprehend that, we have to make a PSA that includes cookies (to grab their attention) and say “don’t leave anything in your car you wouldn’t want to bake.”
Hey, whatever works at this point. I’ll definitely be thinking of this next time I’m out and about in my car, and I’m also definitely looking up “cookie places near me” on my GPS.
Take a look:
Pretty crazy stuff right there…
The National Park elaborated on the public service announcement in the caption of the video, in case anyone was feeling really frisky and wanted to learn more about how harmful the overbearing heat wave can be:
“Zion temperatures have been hitting triple digits (over 38° C) consistently for the past few weeks, and forecasts are predicting it will stay hot for a while. To further prove how hot it is, we baked the cookies on a day without a heat wave!
Temperatures inside a car can reach up to 200° F (93° C) on these high heat days. Never leave animals or children in car, even for a couple of minutes. We also suggest bringing food with you instead leaving it to melt (or bake).
No one wants their fun visit to Zion to become the trip they cut early due to heat illness. Check the forecast before visiting the park, wear sun protection, don’t push yourself too hard, bring a gallon of water per person, and replenish your body’s electrolytes with plenty of salty snacks.”
Translation: it’s really hot, so don’t be stupid.
We’ve actually seen a lot of people be pretty smart dealing with the heat wave sweeping across the country right now. Like this Amazon delivery driver who dove into a customer’s pool in full uniform.
Desperate times call for desperate measures…
