The Heatwave Was So Intense Last Week That Someone Baked Biscuits in Their Car

updated Jul 22, 2019
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This past weekend, most of the country experienced a scorcher. The heatwave cleared the streets, sending everyone indoors to sit in front of the air conditioning with a cold drink. It’s one thing to enjoy a warm sunny day on the beach, but this is the type of the heat that is frankly unsafe to be exposed to for too long. Think I’m exaggerating? To demonstrate the power of the heatwave, employees of the National Weather Service in Omaha, Nebraska baked biscuits on the dashboard of a car. Yes, really.

In Ohama, the temperature hovered around 99 degrees (though the real feel was closer to 104 degrees). Of course, in a car, the temperature is going to be even higher, which prompted the National Weather Service to perform a little experiment: A group of employees placed several biscuits on a cookie sheet, and left them on the dashboard of a car for eight hours. 

The car essentially turned into an oven in the direct sunlight, reaching 175.2 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Newsweek. After four hours in the car, the tops of the biscuits turned golden brown. After eight hours, the biscuits were doughy, but still edible according to a tweet from the agency. The cookie sheet reached a top temperature of 185 degrees — not quite as hot as the average oven, but for the average car? Yeah, that’s definitely in the danger zone. 

The biscuits didn’t cook as quickly as they would in your oven at home (and thank goodness for that; would you really want to wait eight hours for a batch of Pillsbury biscuits?). Still, it’s a little astonishing that they baked at all. Just goes to show how scary powerful the sun can be. 

By the way, this a fun cooking experiment, but temperatures this high are legitimately dangerous, and it’s important to stay cool during a heatwave. If you’re planning on doing any baking during the next heatwave, just make sure you have a fan nearby.