A car on fire in 2006 on state route 138 in Oregon. Car fires may be common and dangerous, but it isn’t due to the outside temperature interacting with pressurized fuel. (WING-CHI POON / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Yes, It’s Hot; But No, Your Gas Tank Won’t Explode If You Fill It Up

Fill up your gas tank, no matter how hot it is, with confidence and safety from anywhere on Earth.

For most of the northern hemisphere, summer is in full swing. Along with the customary scorching temperatures and wildly uncomfortable conditions for people, there are heat advisories put out by organizations like the National Weather Service to keep people safe.

But it isn’t just humans and other animals that are at risk from the heat. As many locations dry out, the fire risk increases tremendously. Burn bans are put into place in dozens of counties. Enclosed spaces are a danger, too; they can get extremely hot very quickly, such as inside of a closed car. While many warnings exist about these dangers, a new, troubling warning has surfaced: claims that a full gas tank can spontaneously explode on a hot day. The warnings are going viral in many parts of the world, but is this a legitimate concern? Let’s look to the science to find out.

Claims that a full gas tank can spontaneously explode on a hot day have been circulating on the internet since 2011, and are false. (UNKNOWN; FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO PAKISTAN STATE OIL (PSO))

First off, there’s absolutely a physical element of truth here. If you take any closed container of a fixed volume…