The Claim: Heat waves melted garbage cans, tires, street lights and other items
A black plastic cover melts on the side of a Salvador Dali dumpster. The wings of a ceiling fan drop to the ground like a withered flower. The rubber of a tire seems to flow on its hub.
The images are part of a viral Facebook post that claims to show the damage heat waves can cause. As the western United States continues to simmer under record high temperatures, more than 80,000 users shared the photos, which also made their way to Twitter.
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“The first great heat wave of 2021 arrived this weekend. This is damage done in the past by a heat wave. Take advantage of all the cold places you live in because it’s not for the faint of heart. . #Arizonalife, ”wrote the post’s creator.
But did a heat wave really cause the damage to the photos?
USA TODAY discovered that several of the photos actually show damage from fires or long-term exposure to dust and other weather conditions, not heat waves. And the photos were taken from around the world, not just Arizona, as the hashtag implied.
“I live here in Arizona and it’s always a common topic, the warmth is part of our life,” Kaitlyn Isaacson, the creator of the post, said in a comment to USA TODAY. “So it’s fun to make a joke or post about it.”
Several photos show the result of fires, not heat waves
One photo shows a traffic light whose caps have melted over its red, yellow and green bulbs. After the same claim circulated on Twitter in June 2019, PesaCheck, Africa’s largest indigenous fact-checking network, reported that a YouTube video from July 2013 shows the traffic light melted after a car crashed. hit the fire pole and caught fire in Kuwait.
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Another of the photos, first posted on Reddit in 2017, shows a melted plastic fence. However, Buzzfeed, which originally posted the photo in an article titled “It’s so hot in Arizona right now that everything is literally melting” in 2017, later deleted the photo, stating in a correction that the fence had melted due to ‘a fire, not a heat wave.
High density polyethylene does not melt below 200 degrees
The first photo in the series shows a blue curbside recycling bin with a gaping hole where the plastic has apparently melted. Taken in Tempe, Arizona, according to the trash can label, the photo circulated in Arizona heat articles around the world. However, it is not possible that the photo represents the direct effects of a heat wave.
According to Waste Advantage magazine, these bins are most often made from high density polyethylene plastic or polypropylene plastic. These materials require temperatures above 251.6 degrees to melt. So there is no possibility that even the highest temperature recorded at Tempe of 118 degrees could have melted the pan on its own.
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Other factors can cause damage
Another photo shows a sign for Thomas Road in Phoenix.
However, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Street Department of Transportation told a Phoenix NBC affiliate station that the deterioration was not entirely related to the heat wave. More likely, she said, it was due to dust and other weather conditions over time.
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The heat wave caused the damage on a photo
At least one photo in the post shows damage from high temperatures – but not in Arizona.
The photo pops up at first glance to show the rubber of a tire melting into stringy bands. A reverse image search led to the source of the photo: ABC Australia reported that a recently resurfaced road in Queensland melted at the height of a heat wave in July 2018, causing the asphalt for the tires of up to 50 cars.
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Our rating: Partly false
We are evaluating the claim that a series of photos show objects that have melted in PARTLY FALSE heat waves, based on our research. While USA TODAY was unable to identify the cause of the damage in each photo, several of the photos included showed damage from a source other than a heat wave.
Our sources of fact-checking:
- AZ Central, June 18, Phoenix temperatures break another heat record, marking 4 consecutive days above 115
- @Alizzeeeeee) June 13, 2021, Tweeter
- TC Forensic, accessed June 21, Physical Constants for Investigators 2.1.2 Plastics
- Waste Advantage Magazine, January 1, 2018, Sustainability and reliability of recycling bins
- Weatherbase, accessed June 22, Climate Summary for Tempe, Arizona
- Buzzfeed, June 23, 2017, Holy S —, Arizona
- Buzzfeed via Archive.org, June 23, 2017, It’s so hot in Arizona right now that everything is literally melting
- u / EClydez, June 11, 2014, Reddit post
- 12 KPNX News, June 23, 2017, Is Phoenix Heat Melting Road Signs?
- YouTube, July 2013, حريق سيارة في العقيلة عند إشارة البيرق (Google translates to “Car fire in Egaila at Al-Bairaq signal”)
- PesaCheck, June 26, 2019, FALSE: Cars and traffic lights did not melt after heat wave in Kuwait
- ABC Australia, July 4, 2018, melting asphalt leaves motorists “sinking” into Queensland road, destroying tires
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Our fact-checking work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
