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Facebook just posted to my timeline this picture claiming that cars in Arizona are melting in the heat.

Is it true?

enter image description here

Sebastian
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Pieter Geerkens
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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/80058/discussion-on-question-by-pieter-geerkens-are-cars-in-arizona-melting-in-the-201). – Sklivvz Jul 12 '18 at 08:15
  • The text is given with a smiley - the person was just making an obvious joke. – Fattie Jul 14 '18 at 16:38
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    Anecdotal evidence so I can only comment, but I was (still am) in Tempe, Arizona. I took this picture in the Starbucks parking lot off University and Forest on June 28, 2018. So no whole cars weren't melting, but parts of some were... https://i.imgur.com/kYHCOoL.png All the seals on my 2011 Accord have also become a disgusting mess of gunk – Christian Chapman Jul 30 '19 at 06:28

2 Answers2

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The weather is not melting cars. But there was a big fire in Tucson and the heat from the fire melted plastic parts on a bunch of cars in the parking lot. The pictures in this article fairly clearly match the cars, parking lot, and background building in the picture you attached.

So, are cars in Arizona melting in the heat? A few that were unfortunately parked near a building that caught on fire. Did it have anything to do with the weather? No.

Mark
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    The 6th image in the article contains the car on the left side in the above image. – Salman A Jul 08 '18 at 20:12
  • @ErikE the picture at the top is a slideshow. Mouse over (or touch on mobile) the sides of the image to flip between them. – Doktor J Jul 10 '18 at 17:32
  • I think more impressive (in the sense of both size and economic loss) pictures in this aritcle are the melted construction cranes. – Doktor J Jul 10 '18 at 17:33
  • @DoktorJ Sheesh. I kept clicking the photo at the top of the text. It doesn't have any slideshow there. The photo at the very top of the page, though... I was skipping over that because it just seemed like a static header to me. It had so little "information scent" for me. If the title of the article was *above* those, I am 100% sure I would have seen them. – ErikE Jul 10 '18 at 17:52
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    It's also obvious from the parts of the car that are scorched/damaged most, the heat was directional - specifically, behind the camera. – GalacticCowboy Jul 10 '18 at 18:55
  • PS: the car in the 1st image in the article is the one on the left side in the above image. – Salman A Jul 11 '18 at 07:52
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    In some rare cases, reflections from windows or other lense-type objects can cause melting or warping to some plastics. The softening/melting point of the most heavily used car plastics range from about ~220°f (abs) and ~300°f (polycarbonate)...which is well above even the hottest standard outdoor temperatures. – heyitsmyusername Jul 12 '18 at 15:05
  • It looks like there are traces of incomplete combustion on the rim of the car on the right. – Hawker65 Jul 12 '18 at 15:24
  • @heyitsmyusername [like this?](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2786723/London-skyscraper-Walkie-Talkie-melted-cars-reflecting-sunlight-fitted-shading.html) – Alexander Jul 14 '18 at 11:25
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A search on https://tineye.com led me to this tweet by @AyeElleJay with the caption "Slimmmmm! Arizona weather real different " against that image.

Replies to the tweet questioned its validity, and a user named @TheMutHouse replied "this is from a recent fire in tucson, the neighboring apartment buildings cars were melted."

I'm not sure if it's the source of the image but a local news site does indeed have a story titled "Owners dealing with melted cars after construction fire".

IMSoP
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