Idaho Power Video Shows Scary Reason You Should Never Leave Water Bottles in the Car

Sure, the Farmer's Almanac predicted that summer in Idaho will be "seasonable and dry," but it appears that Mother Nature missed that memo! She's about to crank up the heat in the Gem State.

There's a good chance you'll stumble across this article sometime during Summer 2024, but at press time there's a string of at least a week of unseasonably warm temperatures ready to cook Boise. We're talking 10-15º above average for early June.

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While we won't set a record for the earliest date Boise's reached the triple digits (that was set on June 3, 2021) there's a reality that Boise could hit 100º for the first time in 2024. Hot and super sunny days are here and you don’t make this dangerous mistake. 

READ MORE: 11 Things You Should Never Leave in Your Car on a Hot Idaho Day

In 2017, a video from Idaho Power went viral after a video warning created by one of their Stations Battery Techs went viral. As the tech tells the story, he took an early lunch break in his vehicle and noticed smoke rising from the passenger seat of his car. Like so many of us do in the summer, he had tossed a full plastic water bottle there. Sunlight beamed through the driver’s side window and focused to a single point as it refracted through the bottle. 

If you ever used a magnifying glass to burn ants on your driveway or newspaper in science class when you were younger, it’s the same action. In the case of the Idaho Power Tech, the light was focused long enough to start burning through the upholstery. After doing a double take, the tech moved the water bottle and realized that it had left two small burn marks on his seat. 

Idaho Power crews tried to repeat the scenario to test just how hot things got by using a non-contact thermometer. They recorded a temperature of 213 degrees at one point. 

A few years after the Idaho Power video took off, a Central New York Firefighter did a news story with WSTM-TV where he demonstrated how water bottles could start a fire in your vehicle. During the story he said fires like this were most common in situations where there is low humidity and dry heat…two things that Boise just happens to be famous for.