It was cold enough this week in Oklahoma that AAA Oklahoma was kept busy with more than 1,200 calls—-most for dead car batteries.
That’s since early Wednesday when temperatures dropped below freezing and undoubtedly the number grew as temperatures dropped into the teens and approached single digits in some places with the approach of the weekend.
AAA Oklahoma said it had officially responded to 1,223 calls from Oklahomans.
“No one ever plans on getting stranded so AAA encourages anyone with a car battery more than three years old to get it checked,” urged Dana Storey, Emergency Roadside Service Fleet Manager for AAA Oklahoma.
Storey explained the average car batter has a life of 3 to 5 years. At 32 degrees, a battery is 35 percent weaker. At zero degrees, a car’s battery loses about 60 percent of its strength, but the engine needs about twice as much power to start.
And the battery life can be drained faster if devices are plugged into cars including cell phone chargers, upgraded audio and GPS devices.