11 Things Floridians Know Never to Leave in a Hot Car

A parked car in direct sun climbs about 19 degrees in its first 10 minutes, according to two decades of research out of San Jose State University.

These are the things Floridians know better than to leave sitting in a car without shade.

Note: This is general safety information, not medical advice. Medication storage limits vary by drug, so check the label or ask your pharmacist.

1. Kids in the Back Seat

Florida’s summer runs from spring through fall, so the window for a hot car to turn dangerous for a child never closes.

A child’s body heats up three to five times faster than an adult’s, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Florida has recorded 115 deaths since 1998, the second-highest total of any state, behind only Texas.

Cracking the windows doesn’t fix it either.

Researchers who tested that trick found it barely moves the temperature at all.

Checking the back seat before locking the doors, and leaving a phone or a wallet next to the car seat as a reminder, closes the gap that memory alone can’t.

Look before you lock.

2. Pets Riding Shotgun

Florida’s humidity makes a parked car even more dangerous for a dog or cat than the temperature alone suggests.

On a 95-degree day, a parked car’s interior can reach 115 degrees in just 10 minutes.

Not even one song.

Panting is a dog’s main way to cool off, and Florida’s thick humidity makes that harder to pull off with every passing minute.

More than half of the dogs that suffer heatstroke don’t survive it.

A Florida errand that runs long isn’t a small risk to gamble on.

3. Insulin and EpiPens

The insulin-in-the-glovebox risk barely lets up in Florida, where the warm season stretches across much of the year.

The American Diabetes Association warns that insulin should never ride in a hot car, since heat breaks it down long before the bottle’s printed expiration date says it will.

Degraded insulin doesn’t always look different.

No visible warning sign.

A Florida driver could inject it without ever knowing it stopped working the way it should.

An EpiPen carries a similar risk, since its manufacturer sets a strict upper storage limit that a Florida glovebox clears within minutes.

Anyone managing diabetes or a severe allergy in Florida plans around this the way other drivers plan around traffic.

4. Aerosol Sunscreen and Bug Spray

An aerosol can becomes a hazard once Florida’s dashboard heat passes a certain point.

Aerosol cans carry a printed warning against storage above 122 degrees, a mark a closed-up Florida car clears before an afternoon at the beach even wraps up.

Past that point, pressure builds inside the can faster than the metal can hold.

One driver left a can of compressed air on her dashboard and came back to find it had blown two holes through her windshield.

Windshields don’t grow back.

Spray sunscreen and bug spray ride in many Florida beach bags, and both carry a warning label few people ever read.

5. Butane Lighters

A disposable lighter turns into a hazard once Florida’s summer dashboard gets hot enough.

Butane compresses into a liquid inside a sealed lighter, and rising heat increases the pressure inside it.

A closed-up Florida car regularly climbs past 125 degrees within a half hour, well past the point where a lighter’s plastic casing starts to give.

Plastic doesn’t stand a chance.

Fire safety experts list lighters among the everyday items that can rupture or explode inside a hot car.

A glovebox is the last place a Florida driver should stash a lighter once summer sets in.

6. Phone Chargers and Power Banks

Florida’s hurricane season means a power bank often rides in the car for months at a stretch, waiting for the day it’s needed.

A parked Florida car can clear 135 degrees within an hour of sitting in the sun, right at the edge of what a lithium-ion battery is built to handle.

That’s the edge.

Heat weakens a battery’s internal structure.

The damage can make it swell, vent gas, or catch fire.

A swollen case is the warning sign, and it means the power bank belongs in the trash, not back in the glovebox.

7. Vape Pens and E-Cigarettes

Florida boaters and beachgoers carry vape pens everywhere, including into a parked car's worst conditions.

A vape runs on the same kind of lithium battery packed into phones and laptops, and heat is exactly what damages that battery fastest.

A closed-up Florida car reaches damaging heat on a routine summer day, no heat wave required.

Just a normal Tuesday.

A battery in thermal runaway can vent toxic fumes and catch fire within seconds.

A cupholder is a bad home for a disposable vape on a hot Florida afternoon.

8. Camping and Boat Fuel Canisters

A small butane or isobutane fuel canister rides in many Florida trunks all summer long, part of the state's boating and camping culture.

Those canisters carry the same class of high-heat warning printed on the aerosol cans covered above, just for a different gas.

The gas inside is already under pressure, and rising heat raises that pressure toward the point where the canister can rupture.

A Florida trunk clears a canister's printed limit in well under an hour on a normal August afternoon.

Not even a fishing trip.

Camp stove fuel belongs in a cooler or an air-conditioned cabin between trips, not baking in a Florida trunk.

9. Sunglasses on the Dash

Sunglasses live in a Florida car far longer than they would somewhere with an actual winter, since the state's low latitude keeps the ultraviolet (UV) index high nearly all year.

Coatings on polycarbonate lenses begin breaking down around 140 degrees, a temperature a Florida dashboard clears within 30 minutes.

Warped lenses don't always look bent.

Sometimes the frame just sits crooked, or straight lines through the lens start to ripple.

Not always obvious.

Once that happens, the fix is a new pair, not a trip back to the optometrist.

A center console or a glove compartment protects a pair of sunglasses far better than the sun visor ever will.

10. Sunscreen Lotion

A bottle of sunscreen practically has to ride along on a Florida beach trip, which is the one place in the car it shouldn't stay.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends keeping sunscreen at room temperature, well under what a Florida car interior hits by midday.

Heat breaks down active ingredients like avobenzone and oxybenzone faster than the bottle's expiration date accounts for.

Weaker protection.

A sunburned beachgoer might be applying sunscreen that stopped doing its job somewhere between the parking lot and the sand.

Separated, runny, or grainy texture is the tell that a Florida bottle already took the damage.

11. Canned Soda and Sparkling Water

A forgotten case of soda turns into more than a warm-drink problem in Florida's summer heat.

Heat lowers how much carbon dioxide a can holds in solution while the liquid inside expands at the same time.

Internal pressure climbs fast.

Cans typically fail once pressure climbs to several times normal atmospheric pressure, and a Florida trunk on a 95-degree day gets there faster than expected.