People from the "hotter" regions, how do you deal with the heat?
I am from Eastern Europe and this is the hottest summer on my memory. For at least 3 consecutive years the heat is breaking all records.
This stuff is unbearable, I can’t even play video games on my laptop, because it warms up very fast and the keyboard becomes uncomfortable for me to use.
So, could you please share any useful tips on how do you survive the summer?
When I lived in a top floor apartment in Melbourne, where it regularly hit 40°C without any air-conditioning (still unsure how that was and is legal to rent out), I would use a spray bottle of water and a fan to evaporatively cool myself, cold showers to lower my body heat and trips to an air-conditioned space like the cinema or shopping centre during the worst of it.
I’m from central Italy, in my city temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees in August. With the recent heatwave we reached it in mid July, I cope by being indoors and locking myself in with AC on and drinking ice cold water, and when I can (and I fortunately can afford so) going on vacation in colder, still close, places, something like Abruzzo or Molise if you know central Italy.
I’m from eastern europe too, I feel like I almost died from the august 2020 heat, this year I couldn’t belive my eyes seeing 37°C on the weather app last week(and continues to rise). The hail mary was fans for me, but air conditioning is something that will get harder to live without as years roll by and the temperature increases. I know I’m not the intended audience, but what worked for me was spending more time in rooms where the sun doesn’t hit as much(for me it’s the bathroom), standing near walls(I noticed they don’t catch a lot of heat and they are not too cold to lean on), every few hours try to splash some water on your face and neck and maybe(I don’t know if this works, didn’t try it) towels that are wet and were left a bit in the fridge(I’d avise much caution with temperature change to avoid termic shock, for the towel too not be too cold and the body too warm). Hydrate and avoid going outside mid day as much as possible. Summer gets easier when you work in an air conditioned office, but until then, good luck and drink water.
Barcelona A/C all the day at 24C (25C or 26C when sleeping). However to me it’s been always hot here. So I’m not particularly suffering this summer more than the others.
I don’t buy the don’t drink ice water. I live in a place where summer temperatures are normally over 100° F (37.7° C). And nothing feels better after doing a lot of yard work like chugging ice water. The worst that’s ever happened to me was a brain freeze.
There is a reason people in the south US drink iced tea. A cold drink on a hot day, just feels good. It might be psychosomatic, but I’ve never heard anything outside of old wives’ tales about cold drinks being bad.
In fact, I’ve participated in the Hotter than Hell, a 100 mile cycling event, in Texas in August. At the halfway point they have snow cones made with sports drinks for the people participating. With over 10,000+ people a year participating and over 40 years you would think someone would have had a bad reaction if drinking cold water was actually an issue.
Avoiding cold water is just bad advice and it’s perpetuated by people who do not live in hot climates. It violates thermodynamics to say adding cold stuff makes you hot.
If you’re already to the point of sweating, your body is trying to cool you down. Adding cool liquid will make you colder, not hotter. Go read medical recommendations for how to treat heat stress, they will never tell you to drink hot tea and eat some chillies
Yeah I’m confused about that too. I drink ice water all the time when it’s hot… But I live in an area with a mild climate, where 27C (80F) is considered hot.
The reason I’ve heard is that your body has to work really hard to warm up the cold water, which in turn means you feel warm more quickly once the effect of the cold water wears off. That’s why people in the desert drink warm tea.
Also one of the reason why people in hot climates love eating spicy foods, especially during the day. When you eat something spicy, your mouth feels hot, but your body temperature is not actually increased. You’ll start sweating, but as your body temperature is not actually increased, you’ll ended up cooling your body instead.
Nah. The body does not have to work “really hard” to warm it up. And if your body is already hot and trying to cool down by sweating then the cold water will help with that. You need 1 kcal to heat up a litre of water by a degree. So if you drink a litre of 6C water and your body temp is 36C then you will need a whopping 30kcal to heat it up. That’s like 5g of peanuts, so like 7.
It’s important to remember that humidity plays a huge role when it comes to managing thermal comfort, and the desert is a very dry place. Advice that is applicable to the desert might not apply in other places with high temperature/high humidity.
I don’t know whether drinking hot tea actually helps to beat the heat, but speculating a bit on it, we might guess that hot tea would promote sweating, which is highly effective for reducing body temperature in dry contexts, but less so in humid ones. The tea is also warmer than your body temperature if it is to be considered warm, and as such you will get hotter without getting any relief from the sweating, making drinking hot tea in a hot/humid scenario counterproductive if these assumptions are correct.
Honestly, I just love the heat. I strip down to as few layers as possible, put a fan on, and that’s pretty much it. Even when it gets really hot, I still find that easier than the cold. The question I really want to know is how do people deal with the cold!
I'm the opposite. I live in the midwestern US so when it's hot, it's also humid. If my room is above 72F I can't even sleep, I just sweat right through the sheets. On the other hand, when it's 40F out, I'll open my windows and sleep in my boxers.
I’m the opposite. I live in the midwestern US so when it’s hot, it’s also humid
I live in sub tropical Australia. Humid days sit in the mid 80s for humidity, and the summer highs gets to around 33c (92f), though there are days that get hotter than that.
That’s when you’ll get me in as few layers as possible.
But the temperature drops to anything in single digits Celsius (below 50F) and I basically can’t operate. I stop riding my bike, I stop running, and I just hide inside.
The good old you can always add more layers. The coldest temperature I ever experienced in my region was -26°C, the hottest just over 40. Between the two, I much prefer the former.
But then again, it just boils down to what you’re used to. Our winters have always been on the harsher side, and I’m not even far up north.
Every new heatwave has me holding on for dear life. Judging by recent years, my body will have to adapt sooner than later, otherwise I’m going to have a really bad time going forward.
My issue with hot weather is that around 25°C i run out of layers to remove to stay comfortable, and I can’t even get to that point if I’m anywhere outside my own home because running around naked in public is sadly not socially acceptable. So when temps reach 35 outdoors I just feel like dying as even indoors tends to heat up to >30 if the temps stay for a few days.
30 to 33 is my happy place when it comes to heat. 35 is a bit warmer than I like, but manageable. It’s not until around 38 or so that I really start to struggle.
Yeah unfortunately as cultures get air conditioners, they can take more heat as a society, but individually most people don’t ever truly be hot adapted. Then you get a place where people run from their ACd job to their ACd carto their ACd grocery store and finally get to heir ACd house.
Drink lots of cold water. Back in May I almost got a heat stroke because I was drinking room temperature water and hot tea @ 4pm when it is the hottest. Stop drinking anything hot. If tap water is warm fill up buckets of water previous night for bathing. Leave those buckets open in the bathroom with windows open to allow water to cool overnight. Of course you also need air-conditioning and ceiling fans. Additionally, use blackout curtains on windows, keep doors and windows closed so that rooms don’t become as hot as outside. FYI where I live summer temperatures are 45 deg C, and this is all part of what I do to deal with the heat.
I’m late to this party because I’m on the other side of the planet in a sub-tropical climate. I agree with the commenter from India and want to add:
• if you have a cotton cap / beanie / soft hat, get it out Wet it, wring it out, and put it in your freezer in roughly the right shape for your head. Use whatever is in the freezer to shape it, then let it freeze. Remove from freezer, put it in your head, and thank me for the brief but blessed relief.
• Wear a light cotton long sleeve top. Wet the sleeves and stand or sit in front of a fan or in a breezy spit in the shade. It’s like air conditioning for your skin.
• Wet your head for instant relief. Your wet hair will help keep you cool for longer.
• Plan your day around the heat. If you have to go out, do it as early in the day as you can to avoid the heat. Stay in the shade as much as possible, but somewhere with good air flow
For some reason, I’ve never really thought about this. I splash my face, my neck, wet my arms and legs, but I always forget the top of my head.
Maybe I unconciously assume my hair provides good shade, but it’s definitely not long and thick enough for that.
plan your day around the heat
This is probably the most important part. It’s quite easy to do that on weekends, but many people have their set in stone hours at work that just aren’t compatible with that kind of weather.
We need to figure out how employers can be more flexible with allowing their employees to work around the heat when possible. It’s normal for construction workers to start earlier and pause during the hottest hours, why not do that in the office too?
Some middle-european countries are starting to consider the siesta model of their southern neighbours, and I think that’s not a bad idea at all.
Here in Australia a lit of road construction works are carried out overnight in the summer. This helps beat the heat, which improves safety, but also improves safety by ensuring work is being carried out when there’s the least amount of traffic next to the work zones.
Less traffic is something I didn’t even think about, but that’s absolutely a big added benefit. Especially when so many people don’t seem to care about speed limits in construction zones. Well, here at least, I don’t know about Australia.
I don’t envy the people who do roadside work, it must be incredibly stressful. Hearing protection, helmet and visor protect them, but also make it harder to notice approaching traffic.
I would probably be jumpscared every time a truck suddenly appears in my peripheral.
I live in South Vietnam. I stay inside for the hours between 12 and generally 3-4. If I’m outside during those hours, I stay still as much as possible. Always have a drink: lite tea is common here. Avoid direct sun, cover exposed areas of skin when traveling. Evaporative cooling is your friend. You can keep a small spray bottle of water with you. Fans heat up a room if the room isn’t vented, so keep the fan on, but crack the door if you don’t have AC.
I’m originally from a city quite close to Canada, known for harsh winters, and now I live in a place where 40c is common. If the temperature gets too high, or you begin feeling sick/dizzy. Find a place to cool down and hydrate. Heat stroke is no joke.
I’m in Phoenix. It was 112°f here today. It’s hot as balls.
However, I’m immensely more comfortable in this heat than I was when visiting Germany last summer when it was in the high 70’s. The difference is the humidity. I was constantly sweating, soaking everything while I was over there. Here? I get a little sweaty at 100°, sometimes. Our power infrastructure is pretty solid, so lots of air conditioner.
If the dew point is favorable at least, then drinking Hot Coffee and let myself sweat in front of an Electric Fan. If it is very humid, Ice on neck or taking a cold shower.
If I had to go outside or Air conditioning at the office broke, then I’d wear light clothing where sweat is easier to evaporate
Otherwise, I’d just use air conditioning and eat up the electricity cost, fuck this weather.
I live in the desert so its usually a dry heat so I get to use a evaporative/swamp cooler. It uses way less electricity than the AC. I just have to crack open a few windows across the house and turn on a fan in the hallway and it gets quite cool and doesn’t get too humid inside. It hit 110ºF (43ºC) today and it never got above 72ºF (22ºC) inside.
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