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Singapore can get pretty hot outside these days especially in open areas with heat-absorbing concrete surfaces directly exposed to the sun, owing to a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect.

The highest daily maximum temperature here can get close to 35°C.

On July 4, 2022, a maximum temperature of 34.8°C was recorded at Marina Barrage during the hottest part of the day.

But can you actually cook an egg in this kind of heat?

For those of you who always wondered but never experimented, here is the answer on TikTok: No.

@entinique Damn hot Singapore sun until can cook an egg. #fypシ #sgtiktok #hotsun #hotweather #singapore #outdoorcooking #egg #35degrees ♬ 芭比q了 - 邓家忠

What video showed

Someone in Singapore apparently tried to cook an egg using nothing but a frying pan and the sun's heat.

It turns out, while it might be hot, it is not hot enough to cook an egg.

The progress of the slow fry was documented in quick cuts at the 5-minute, 30-minute, 1-hour and 2-hour marks.

The eventual product, with the white cloudy and the yolk slightly coagulated, appeared more dehydrated than cooked.

This suggested that while Singapore might be hot out, it is still not hot enough.

Mechanics of frying an egg using the sun

Turns out, frying an egg in the sun is a time-honoured tradition in some countries that experience way hotter heat waves than our own.

The minimum temperature to get an egg to cook is at least 70°C and that temperature has to hold for many minutes to see the egg visibly change in texture.

Using just the sun's rays will be insufficient to cook the egg.

An indirect method would be to use the concrete pavement, which can get up to 63°C on very hot days, to heat a frying pan, but that is likely still not hot enough to cook an egg, as the sidewalk eventually conducts heat poorly.

In the August 2020 Buzzfeed video seen above, it took the hood of a car exposed to the sun to pre-heat a cast iron pan, which was then exposed to mirrors and magnifying glasses concentrating the sun's rays on the metal for the egg to eventually sizzle and cook.

Top photos via