Cooking Off

By James Rummel

Regular readers of my unworthy scribblings already know that I have moved from snowbound Ohio ….

… to Sun-blasted West Texas.

I got here in the dead of winter, so it was actually very comfortable for me at the time. But the seasons are turning, summer is coming, and the temperatures are on the rise. In a month or so, I expect that the midday heat will top 110 Fahrenheit (44 Celsius).

Thinking on the coming warmening, a memory floated up to the depths. A reader once asked me if it would be alright if he stored his defensive handgun in his car during the hot times. Would his ammo, perchance, cook off inside the baked interior?

I first determined that the inside of a car can’t heat up much more than about 50 degrees F (26 degrees C) hotter than the outside temp. After that equilibrium is reached, and the car is radiating energy at the same rate it is absorbing heat from the Sun.

So how hot are we talkin’? Worst possible scenario sees the inside of a dark car with large windows reaching 200 F (94 C).

<img src="http://hellinahandbasket.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bursting-thermometer.png" …Read the Rest

Source:: Hell In a Handbasket