Dealing with heat

DancingLady

DancingLady

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22 Oct 2014
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its been over 100 for several days now where I live and I just wanted to share some tips for coping with heat. Our air conditioner can only get the indoor air temperature down to maybe 85 due to the extreme outdoor temperature, and I have an active job where none of the rooms are less than 75 or so for the whole day. I pretty much sweat all day and all night.

I eat all 3 meals at refrigerated temperatures. You might think that sounds gross, but I just add a little extra spice to compensate for flavor being muted by cold. It's amazing what a cold bowl of beans and rice will do to perk you up when you haven't stopped sweating since you troweled off in the morning.

I replaced my morning grains with bananas as well to increase my potassium intake, and use a few extra shakes of salt on each dish since I am sweating out a lot more than I would if it wasn't so hot.
 
Is this a usual thing or a heatwave ? Just wondering where you are in the world. At the moment we here in the UK seem to be having a usual summer - short periods of very hot [which we aren’t ready for] with thunderstorms to cold and windy with rain [it wasn't that long ago it felt more like autumn]. Anyhow good luck with the heat.
 
Down here in the South of England its been really hot for three days now. But its what we would call hot (high 70s or 80's). Its unusual for it to get to 100 F here. Personally I hate it, (I like it to be a nice 70 F). I suspect where @DancingLady lives its more of a norm. If I lived in that kind of climate I would simply HAVE to have effective air conditioning. Then I think I'd be able to eat what I wanted...

Here, I eat more salads when its hot, I suppose. And Ice Lollies!
 
I'm used to it , but I get even more grumpy if it's to hot at night , then I have a fan ,on my bike I only get hot up hills , the day it was 35c I rode 70 miles and worked in it
Cara the best u can shiver in there with the ac
 
Worked next to industrial paint baking ovens, as a welder, so the heat you get used to. Keep the fluids up and you'll be fine.

Used to cycle to work in 2003, 250 miles a weekend
"The hottest day of 2003 was August 9, with a high temperature of 28°C. For reference, on that day the average high temperature is 19°C and the high temperature exceeds 23°C only one day in ten. The hottest month of 2003 was August with an average daily high temperature of 20°C.

Relative to the average, the hottest day was April 16. The high temperature that day was 22°C, compared to the average of 11°C, a difference of 11°C. In relative terms the warmest month wasMarch, with an average high temperature of 10°C, compared to an typical value of 8°C.

The longest warm spell was from May 25 to June 8, constituting 15 consecutive days with warmer than average high temperatures. The month of March had the largest fraction of warmer than average days with 77% days with higher than average high temperatures."
https://weatherspark.com/history/28736/2003/West-Yorkshire-England-United-Kingdom
 
Thankfully it is not that hot yet where I live. We are getting some cool breezes coming in every once in a while. August is the month when we get the real heat, but then again, it is not unbearable. I guess what we would call hot here would not be considered that hot in other parts of the world where it can get unbearably hot and they have to resort to airconditioners. In my country, airconditioners in homes is not a popular thing. However, almost every office is airconditioned year round.

When I get hot, I would drink more cold beverages as well as ice water on a regular basis so as to keep hydrated.
 
Another in the UK here. We just have to put up with it. The idea of air con in a home is non-existent here. It is a case of a fan and damp sheets if it is really bad.

  • We keep the doors and windows, plus the blinds (thermal, light proof ones) closed during the day and only have the windows and doors open first thing in the morning and last thing at night, plus through the night. It was something we adopted when we lived in the south of the UK where it gets much warmer than where we are now. It works well. The inside of the house stays cool and dark (dark makes you feel so much cooler) and it helps so much more. Opening the windows at night gives your a lovely cool(er) breeze and allows the core temperature of the house to drop as well. It is at times like this that I really miss living in the old farmhouse we lived in with 1m thick (3 foot) dry stone walls. They kept the house lovely a cool without you having to do anything.
  • Another is to walk around (where you can at least) without your socks on. Somehow it is always cooler when you take your socks off.
  • Net curtains are really useful at this time of year - washing them and hang them up wet. As the breeze goes through them it cools and so does the room concerned.
  • Freeze some fruit ready cut up and defrost it. when it is 1/2 defrosted eat it! It is lovely and cooling.
  • Wash you hair and leave it to dry naturally.
As for cycling , yep go for it. I was out yesterday and on what was the hottest day of the year so far and loved it. Lovely and cooling because you generate your own breeze - though you do have to stay cycling to keep it! Last year on the hottest day of the year, I did my first every 100 miles in a day and loved every minute of it.
 
We are going through an unusual heatwave here in the Pacific Northwest and it is getting miserable for sure. We have an air conditioner, but it really only cools one room in the house. I like to wrap a cold wet towel around my neck as that seems to help cool me down. The bug problem I have is that my feet get hot and miserable, so I soak them in a bucket of cold water for a while.
 
Rosyrain said:
We are going through an unusual heatwave here in the Pacific Northwest and it is getting miserable for sure. We have an air conditioner, but it really only cools one room in the house. I like to wrap a cold wet towel around my neck as that seems to help cool me down. The bug problem I have is that my feet get hot and miserable, so I soak them in a bucket of cold water for a while.
Click to expand...
The idea of a wet towel works pretty well. My dad [who served in the Italy and north Africa during the war] told me a similar trick ie wet cloth on the head - the water evaporates using up heat energy to do it and the head has a large blood supply quite near the surface so it cools you down quite well - you do look a bit odd though.
 
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