Sports

Arizona Heat Melts Cars Like Butter Just Moments Before Massive Dust Storm Smacks Entire City

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Arizona Weather Melt Car Haboob Heat Kei'Trel Clark
iStockphoto / © Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images // © Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The weather in Arizona could change at any moment. The heat of the sun allegedly melted the car of Cardinals defensive back Kei’Trel Clark just minutes before a surprise dust storm, known as a haboob.

It was a wild sequence of events in the desert.

I think there is probably more to this story than the NFL veteran is leading on and/or realizes, but he provided evidence of the melted vehicle. And then the entire area was suddenly covered in dirt.

Did the Arizona sun melt Kei’Trel Clark’s car?

I do not know the answer to that question. Logically speaking, the answer is no. Neither the sun nor the outrageous desert temperatures in peak August are hot enough to do so. The temperature would need to reach the melting point of steel, which is over 1,000° Fahrenheit. It does not get that hot.

And yet, Clark posted the following image on his Instagram story after practice:

Kei'Trel Clark Melt Car Arizona Sun Heat
@ke1trel / Instagram

That car is very clearly melted.

The tail light is one thing. A material like polycarbonate is going to melt much quicker than metal— but even polycarbonate doesn’t even start to soften until the temperature reaches ~500º Fahrenheit.

For the rest of the car to melt like that does not make sense. Why does this not happen more often?

Snopes actually debunked a very similar happening in 2018. It found that cars in Arizona were melting because of a nearby fire, not because of a heatwave.

That leads me to think Kei’Trel Clark’s car somehow caught fire. Perhaps there was a nearby reflection that used the magnifying glass effect to destroy his vehicle. Maybe it was something else.

Either way, I do not think it was only the work of the sun and/or the temperature.

Beware of dust storms!

Not only did Clark document his melted vehicle, he shared video of a haboob that overtook the region not too long after he discovered the car damage. A haboob, the funniest word in weather, is characterized by “a massive, dense, wall of dust that forms from the strong winds spreading out from a collapsing thunderstorm.”

All haboobs are dust storms. Not all dust storms are haboobs. This was a haboob.

Here is how it looked as it arrived to downtown Phoenix:

It completely overtook the airport.

Widespread power outages were reported across the city after the dust arrived out of nowhere.

Waymos were completely unfazed.

Even the suburbs got rocked.

As did Arizona State’s football stadium in nearby Tempe.

Campus too!

Here is just one more look from the sky because I cannot get enough of these timelapse videos:

What a day in Arizona! The weather somehow managed to melt Kei’Trel Clark’s car, allegedly, just a few minutes before a massive haboob engulfed the entire region in dirt.

Grayson Weir BroBible editor avatar
Senior Editor at BroBible covering all five major sports and every niche sport imaginable, found primarily in the college space. I don't drink coffee, I wake up jacked.
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