If you haven’t noticed, this summer has been hot. The hottest in recent memory. That’s why it’s as good a time as any to remind parents about the dangers of children being left in a hot car — even if for a short period of time. 

In just two minutes after being parked, the interior of a car can go from 80 degrees to 94. But numbers alone don’t really give us the whole picture. 

“So in the heat, the cars can heat up within 10 minutes to over 120, 130 degrees,” said Dr. Rosemary Higgins of Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).

Dr. Higgins has worked as a NICU doctor and knows all too well just how delicate infants can be, especially to heat. 

“Children and infants are smaller, so they tend to heat up faster. So even within 10 minutes of a child being in a hot car, their body temperature can rise,” she said. “They tend to sweat, they lose salts, they lose fluid, disoriented or dizzy, that can lead to coma or death in a very short period of time.” 

So ABC7 tried testing it out, and found that while sitting in a parked car in the summer sun, the sweating came almost immediately, followed by one iPhone literally shutting down due to the heat. It’s hard to imagine what would happen to a child or pet left in a car, something that already happens roughly 60 times a year throughout the U.S. 

“If the child is asleep and you get out of the car, the tragedy can happen really quickly. It’s so important to prevent these things because they are so preventable,” Higgins added. 

Even cracking the window doesn’t do much. Which is why if you’re out and you happen to see a child locked in a hot car without AC, Higgins has this advice for you: 

“Break the window and get the baby out of there, get help,” she said.