17-02-2025
With extreme cold headed to Oklahoma, here are 8 items not to leave in your car in winter
With an arctic blast incoming for Oklahoma, here's your reminder to clean out your car.
When temperatures are outside the norm, i.e. extreme hot or cold, everyday items you might keep in your car without thinking about it should be brought inside.
Here are eight things you shouldn't leave in your car during cold weather — and many of these items should stay out of hot weather, too.
Extreme temperatures can cause aerosol cans to "become unstable" and potentially break or explode, according to Capital One Auto Navigator.
When frozen, the liquid in canned drinks can expand, causing the can to crack and burst, leaving a mess in your car.
Canned food that freezes, on the other hand, is unsafe to eat and should be discarded, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This goes for both cans that become swollen when freezing and those that don't become swollen.
Leaving a wooden string instrument in a cold car, like a guitar, cello or violin, is a recipe for disaster, according to Johnson String Instrument.
Exposure to the cold weather can cause the moisture to be sucked out of your instrument, leading to loose pegs, cracks in the wood and damaged strings.
Ideally, medicines should be kept on your person or in your home, not in the car.
Medicine that is left in the extreme cold can become ineffective or harmful, and if frozen or left in the cold it should be replaced.
Electronics, like your phone, tablet or laptop, should not be left in the car in the cold.
Exposure to extreme temperatures can affect how these items work and damage the battery. For items that were left in the cold, it's important to let them acclimate to warmer temperatures before attempting to use them, according to online tech support forums.
While many of us leave our sunglasses in their car, this is a practice to avoid during cold weather, especially with prescription glasses.
If eyeglasses go through an extreme temperature change, this can cause the frames to warp and even crack the lenses. In extreme cold, the plastic frames can become brittle and break.
When an egg is exposed to extreme cold, it can cause the inside to freeze and the shell to crack.
If this happens, the egg is not considered safe to eat and should be discarded. Any eggs that have frozen but not cracked can be kept in the freezer and thawed in the refrigerator when needed.
However, the uses of a frozen egg are limited. They can be hard cooked but the egg will not flow like one that hasn't been frozen or mix well with the egg whites or other ingredients, according to the USDA.
While this one should be obvious, it's an important reminder that a cold car is just as dangerous as a hot one to humans and animals.
This especially goes for children and the elderly, who are more likely to experience hypothermia at cold temperatures. Even limited amounts of time in an unheated vehicle can be dangerous, and this goes for pets as well.
Contributing: Cailey Gleeson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Arctic blast hits Oklahoma: Here's 8 things not to leave in your car
