Wednesday was the warmest day of the year thus far, with parts of the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast reaching 90 degrees. These conditions are more typical of late May or June. Numerous locations across the northeastern Interstate 95 corridor marked their earliest 90-degree day in over a decade. The heat will hang around through the first half of the weekend before a cold front brings storms and temperatures return closer to seasonal averages in the 50s and 60s.
PUTNAM COUNTY, Tenn. – Tragedy has unfolded in Tennessee after a 7-month-old was found dead in a car in Monterey on Wednesday.
Officers from the Monterey Police Department were reportedly the first on the scene in response to an unresponsive infant inside a vehicle outside a library.
According to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, it is believed that the child may have been inside the smoldering vehicle for hours, noting that the engine was turned off and windows rolled up.
Framingham, MA. – July 7: After 9 mins, the temperature in a police cruiser with the windows shut went from 80 degrees to over 120 degrees like the Mass. State Police and the Animal Rescue League team up to inform people about the dangers of leaving a pet in a car on a hot day on July 7, 2021 in Framingham, MA.
(Stuart Cahill/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald / Getty Images)
Despite extensive life-saving efforts, the infant was pronounced dead by officials.
This comes after a 1-year-old girl died after being left in a car for an unknown amount of time in Florida on April 1st.
Inside vehicles, heat can build up much faster than you think. Temperatures in a turned-off car can change as quickly as 2 minutes.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), a dark dashboard or seat can reach temperatures of 180 to 200 degrees.
EXTREME HEAT SAFETY: RECOGNIZING SIGNS OF HEAT ILLNESS AND HOW TO TREAT IT
National Weather Service heat examples inside a vehicle.
Objects such as dashboards, steering wheels, and child seats heat the air adjacent to them by conduction and convection, while also emitting longwave radiation that warms the air trapped inside a vehicle.
Over 900 children have died inside hot vehicles since 1998, according to the NWS.
