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?
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Indian here, so experienced with hot climate.
ETA: When it gets so hot that we lose our appetite, then our go-to meal is to mix up cooled cooked rice with unsweetened yoghurt and a pinch of salt. its variously called yoghurt rice/ curd rice/ thayir saadam / dahi bhaath / dahi chaawal . This is an easy to make & easy to diges meal that is guaranteed to cool a person down.
thayir = dahi = curd = yoghurt
saada = bhaath = chaawal = cooked rice
Good luck.
Ok but what about the uncomfortable keyboard? WHAT DO WE DO???
comfort it :P
USB attached keyboard?
Hydrate it with water, that should help.
Get a laptop cooling stand.
I’d make one exception: cotton wants to hold water. Evaporative cooling needs water to evaporate. There are synthetic materials that will hold much less water, so they’ll weigh less from sweat and evaporate more quickly, providing a tiny bit more cooling. Plus many have protection from the sun reducing the amount of sunscreen that has to be worn.
There are a line of shirts known as “fishing shirts” that are made to be big, and they have vents to encourage air to circulate inside them. They work great.
its hot, water will evaporate no matter what the cotton wants. the longer the fabric stays wet, the longer the wearer will be cool.
Why cotton instead of linen? At least in Spain, linen is more popular as summer clothing, and definitively feels fresher.
Cost. Cotton is less expensive than linen, easier to maintain, and more widely available. Banana fiber is also quite cool but is not widely available.
Close the windows, curtains and shades during the day, at around 8-9AM. When it’s very warm outside, open windows are your enemy.
Open windows, curtains and shades during the night when temperature is lowering.
This is good advice to follow even if you do have air conditioning. Keeping the heat out makes the AC work less. Maybe invest a nice set of thermal curtains.
This is not good advice for poorly insulated houses, which most are that live in temperate climates. The sun will heat up the house almost immediately, making it an oven.
Agreed. If you live in an ovenhouse, ventilation is your friend. You can’t keep the heat out, but your can keep it moving
Like all advice obtained on the internet, YMMV.
I do construction work in Alabama. I basically bitch and complain all summer long and hate every second of it. There’s no relief unless you’re in the AC. I’ve been thinking of ordering a liquid cooled vest actually. They look weird but I’ll try anything. The humidity here is killer. Sweating doesn’t help like it does in dry climates. Every time I walk outside my body shuts down and I have literally no energy. I think i had a heat stroke last summer.
If someone above me tells me to go work outside all day and doesn’t offer me a substantial amount of money, I tell them to go fuck themselves. It isn’t worth it.
As a European, what is this AC you’re talking about.
Houses in Europe usually don’t have AC, but more and more people are getting one now.
In the American southeast, especially in a river Delta, you can’t live in a house long without AC or a dehumidifier. Mold will grow to toxic levels quickly in a house that’s left without electricity for very long in areas around me.
We have trouble opening our front door in the summer when the temp gets above 38 due to the humidity causing the wood door to swell. The heat index reached 47 last week due to the high humidity so there’s a ton of water in the air.
This is what killed around 700 people during one heat dome event in Canada a few years back. So much humidity in the air that sweating wasn’t helping cool people. You body can’t cool so you overheat and die. Not all people died from that but they were attributed to heat causes.
Those vests can be very effective. I use a coolshirt system in my track car, and I can be in the car indefinitely on a 100F day with no a/c, as long as the pump is recirculating ice water through my suit.
Most heat gets in through windows facing the sun. I cover the worst with aluminium foil (tin foil).
Also bans all the evil rays! Pew pew pew…
damn that’s pretty genius, although, doesn’t the tin foil or the pocket between the window heat up?
Works best on the outside, but also on the inside it’s a very effective cheap solution.
Would recommend to fix with painters tape.
Yes. Foam or bubble wrap underneath the foil is best for performance over time, even just cardboard can be a meaningful improvement.
Genuine question, does this affect your phone signal at all?
No, never had any issues with GSM, 4G and 5G.
Cool, thanks :)
AZ here, Get a cheap low power desktop for work shit, it will heat up less and you’ll be able to ventilate it better.
Otherwise, a/c, thermal curtains, insulated reflector layer in front of that, make sure your weather seals on your doors are good. Drink water all the time, carry water with you all the time. Good luck with all the heatwaves and welcome to the club.
Thank you for the all the advices but my laptop is already the “low power” option. The other one is a desktop, which produces way more heat. Although still less than most modern “gaming stations”
The club, is sadly, not the one I would like to be in. I have always been a fan of winter but it seems like with each year it’s going to be harder to enjoy it
You can do a suprising amount of stuff on a raspberry pi, they also run ARM meaning they heat up less than a desktop CPU
fan and cooler during dry heat, onlyfans during humid heat after rain, get cotton vest for upper body and cotton bermuda shorts, get external keyboard and a laptop stand with fans for laptop.
honestly i wouldn’t masturbate during humid heat after rain
Before it I would say, so you can wash all the cum away.
ah, that was my problem, I was using onlyfans regardless of the weather
Don’t wear pants! It amazes me how people from colder climates don’t dress for the heat.
You must wear loose-fitting closes that allow breezes to pass through the material. In the sun, you must cover your skin and keep your clothes open.
Brazilian here, to be fair I’ve read so many good tricks here that I am not sure what I have to contribute, but yeah, light clothes with bright colours or white, don’t dress dark as your clothes you heat up. No shoes if you can, but also not barefeet lol sandals and flip flops havaianas styles. If you live close to the beach obviously go take a swim, otherwise swimming pool or AC at home or car or go to store random stores with AC too lol. Drink cold stuff, keep hydrated. Fans, and cold shower.
Have central air conditioning in all buildings.
Have a place to swim.
I’m in the US and it was 40C (104F) yesterday, which is normal for my area. I spent the whole day either indoors or in the neighborhood pool, and it was perfectly comfortable.
Soon people are going to be working in pools. Working from Pool (WFP) becomes the norm because of the heat.
Soon we will evolve to go back in the water. Water levels rise.
Years pass, emissions go down, we evolve to go back onto the land.
The cycle repeats.
Two drifters meet. Something needs to be exchanged.
this is underground morlock burrow erasure
Both AC and pools have a horrible upkeep cost.
So does winter heating.
Thats why I wear jackets indoors
Unlike winter heating, at least you can power the AC by the very sun that burns on your roof.
I can get about six hours of free heating during the day from the sun over winter in Australia, using solar and a split system. Only if the sun is unobscured though.
Summer is better of course, due to the longer daylight.
I mean, I bought my window ac at least 10 years ago, the only upkeep is cleaning the filter. no issues. I bought a house with an AC from the 70s or 80s in the wall, also nothing but washing the filters. Sure I’m using electricity, but I wouldn’t call that upkeep.
Pretty sure that’s what that commenter meant. Running AC is a huge energy expenditure and is contributing to the long-term problem.
AC is absolutely necessary where I live. We don’t have the option of not using it to help the environment. I have my thermostat set to 80°F (26.5°C) most days, but without it we would likely have very a high heat-related death rate.
The best option is to have our grid use as much renewable energy as possible. I have solar panels on my house, which covers about 60-80% of my usage on these hot 104°F (40°C) days.
It’s necessary where I live too (inland Los Angeles) and we also keep our thermostat at 80 all summer. The summer power bills really hurt, but we have to. We’re unfortunately not in a position for solar financially but I really wish we were!
But it’s either this or hospital. Human body can’t cool down in very hot and high humidity environments, for example 40 degrees and 90% humidity. My mother was sent to hospital due to heat stroke, AC is life-saving. It would be better if there were better ways.
Right. I don’t think individuals can or should do much beyond setting their AC at reasonable levels.
The responsibility is on governments to heavily invest in renewables so that we don’t continue on our current trajectory. If governments don’t act, the earth will inevitably force some sort of reduction in energy usage and it’ll be far less comfortable than higher taxes.
Exactly. The issue is with the source of electricity, not with the AC itself. Not to mention that leading by example is nice, but it’s not always the best course of action. An individual avoiding AC is a drop in the water, and not going to save the planet, while suffering immensely. Hell, even if every single individual stopped using AC at home (which isn’t even close to reality), that wouldn’t have a significant effect, compared to what corporations, factories, etc. are doing.
The price of electricity in my country (the UK) has gone stupid high right now. We don’t have AC in our homes normally in the country. But I bought a 2nd hand portable unit about 7 years ago when my first son was born cos I was afraid of him gettin too hot at night. I have a 2nd son now and we have had some record high temps last month and o could only afford yo keep this AC unit on for a like 2 to 3 hours at night time in just his room and only on the hottest days. Anymore than that and we woild struggle to pay the energy bill that follows.
It’s not maintenance cost that’s the issue. It’s energy cost.
We bought a cheap above ground pool that we put out in the summer. It helps that we have super cheap abundant supply of water.
In a lot of hot weather countries people don’t have air-conditioning. 40C is also not comfortable in the slightest when the humidity is 90 percent.
I agree. I have lived in hot, humid places without air conditioning. The only solution is to find cool places (in the shade, in a cellar), stay wet, drink lots of water, and avoid physical exertion until the sun goes down.
I am spoiled now. I live in a region with cheap, low-carbon electricity (almost entirely from hydro, nuclear, and wind) and modern infrastructure, so air conditioning is standard practice. I wish the whole world could have the same.
No where on earth is it 40c at 90% humidity, that is explicitly deadly and quickly.
Indeed, many places are 40 and 90% within a day, but not simultaneously. You can see in your image how the peak humidity was at 00:00 and the peak temp at 14:00.
Where I live it is that hot and that humid, but not at the same time. In the morning we will have 95% humidity at 80°F (26.5°C). But later in the day, when it is 104°F (40°C), the humidity usually drops to 40% or lower.
Most of the world does not have central heat and central air.
In many areas, pools can be difficult due to a number of economic, social, and other factors.
Additionally, running AC constantly also puts more heat outside and, depending upon your power source, increases emissions further contributing to global climate issues just making things worse.
Lots of fans.
So many solutions and yours is Onlyfans?
Its effective and relatively cheap.
Only fans.
Sleep during mid-day
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.
Drinking hot liquids is the last thing you should be doing if you are trying to cool yourself down.
If you are looking to evaporation to cool you then splashing some water on you and sitting in front of the fan is a better idea.
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.
Evaporative cooling unfortunately doesn’t work well when it’s also quite humid, which can be the case in some European countries.
No mention of wet headcloths and neckerchiefs here! Get some water on that neckerchief and it’ll drip down the hotter parts of your body. A wet headcloth loosely draped under a hat or headband catches the wind and sends evaporative cooling down your back, and gives you cooler air to breathe.
There’s a reason why deserts around the world are filled with garments like the keffiyeh, pashmina, shemagh, pañuelo, and cowboy scarf. I’ve spent a lot of time in the outdoors with a kufiya from the Hirbawi factory in Palestine, they’re well-made and amazingly handy. Their story is worth reading at http://www.hirbawi.ps .
This will work until there is a wet bulb heat dome event and evaporative cooling no longer occurs because there is more humidity in the air than can evaporate off your body.
Welcome to my shit hole part of the world. Darwin Australia.
In the southern US we have air conditioning everywhere. People avoid going outside except for very early or late in the day when the sun isn’t on you. I try to get any yard work or anything outside down before 10am and avoid going outside the rest of the day.
Yesterday was actually a “nice” day where I’m at because the high was “only” 34C. People were outside enjoying it, but still avoided the sun and were mostly out in the morning and afternoon in shaded areas.
The weather has been so bad lately here in Texas. I was actually happy when I saw it was only 96 degrees outside which meant I could use my long sleeve shirt today lol.
Multiple days over 103+ degrees weather has been torture. It’ll be back to that in 3 hours lol.
Houses are built differently in hot areas. Very few windows facing south. Shutters on all windows. All windows deeply recessed. Channel the wind, ie have a deep through channel that spans across the house so any pressure differential causes air to exchange. Tiled floors. No/low insulation.
In Northern Europe, we live in sweat boxes designed for letting in maximum light and keeping heat inside the house.
There’s a lot of good advice in here but I haven’t seen anyone tell you to just reduce the amount of heat being generated in your home. Almost every plugged in electrical device in your home is generating some amount of heat. Esp. if they’re in use.
So my suggestion to you is to flip off the power-strip or unplug unnecessary devices, and find something else to occupy your time. The consoles, PCs, the tv itself, they’re all hungry devices that generate a lot of heat. Those fans people are telling you to use? They generate heat too… so while I’m not saying, “don’t use a fan to stay cool”, I am saying, “don’t fill your home with running fans in rooms you aren’t in”.
Here’s what I do, dampen a towel and put it in the freezer. Once the towel is good and cold wear it like a cape. Looks kinda stupid but you’ll stay cool.
If AC isnt an option, the way Ive gotten through summers without is opening one window on one side of the building, then another one on the opposite side. Then point a box fan facing outward of one window, and do your best to seal the gaps with some cardboard or whatever you have. This will create negative pressure in the building, drawing in a bunch of air from the opposite window.
Actually it is better to put the fan a few feet away from the window pointing out.
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would be nice with a test for a sealed fan like I described. the problem with that setup is that the negative pressure will try to pull from both windows, competing with the fan trying to blow out and not getting as much flow
I live in the southern US, and my house basically has this built-in. There’s a big fan in the middle of the house that blows air into the attic, so if you open a few windows and flip the fan on it creates a breeze through the whole house.
Make sure your sewer traps haven’t dried up though. I turned it on with the house closed up one day and it sucked in air through the shower drain in the guest bathroom that hadn’t been used in a while…
Attic fans are great. We’d run it when the sun went down to draw in the cool night air. After that we shut everything up and drew the blinds. The house would stay very cool until late the next afternoon. On super hot days we might have run the AC for a few hours in the late afternoon or evening.
Yeah, a whole-house fan. You turn it on in the evening and it expels hot attic air from the top while sucking in cool fresh air through open windows. It actually works really well and is much more energy efficient than AC. When it gets super hot you still need AC though.
But won’t you draw in a bunch of hot air?
it’s the same reason a breezy summer day feels cooler, the air is still cooler than your body temp and draws away heat better than sitting in still air, plus its more evaporation if you’re sweating hot. also indoors without AC during summer is an insulated oven.
People have already mentioned wet towels on your neck but I would add, if you can, cold wraps for your legs: wet towels around your calves.
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 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.
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’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
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.
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.
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.
Ceiling fans should be set to warm weather mode (there should be a switch on the base which changes the direction of spin), you want them to pull hot air up (so the lower edge is the leading side)
Cotton/baggy clothes: cotton loses all insulation properties when wet so its nice on a hot day, baggy clothes are generally more breathable
Self-misters are fine, but do not use humidifiers, lower humidity = faster sweat evaporation = cooler you
Drinks w/ ice and/or icecream: cold stuff inside your body will cool you down
Avoid the outside at 1-2pm: this is usually the hottest part of the day
For your laptop: buy a desk fan and point it right at your laptop, has the bonus of cooling you down too
They’re highly unlikely to have a ceiling fan. Viscose is also much cooler than cotton.
Yeah, ceiling fans are a very rare thing in Eastern Europe. I haven’t ever seen one with my own eyes and I have been to all kinds of places in my country
The 1-2pm piece here definitely varies by region. Where I reside it is around 3:30-4:30pm local time.
Thank you for answering the question with a detailed response!
Ceiling fan is opposite. You’re cooled by the air going over your body. Typically (in US, at least) that means counter clockwise in summer and clockwise low speed in winter.
Also as to clothes linen layers are fantastic in heat if available.
air will be blown over your body either way, all you’re changing is the direction the air is coming from. blowing from the ceiling means blowing hotter risen air
Always humid heat, days above 35 degrees have increased a lot. Have to use an AC all summer long… Prayers to those who have to work outside.
When the weather hits 40⁰ around here I might head to the cinema. They’re usually really well temperature controlled, dark and allows you to get out of the sun when it’s at its height. Nights when it doesn’t cool down are harder.
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.
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!
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.
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.
This is the main reason I don’t like cold weather. I hate layers! :)
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.
Warm clothes, they are nice and make you comfy. When you’re at home, putting on a big blanket and some warm tea feels great. Heaters are also a thing
I can’t stand layers of clothing or stuffy indoor air, so both of those are worse than being hot for me
Oof. I don’t know how you do it. I can deal with a dry heat but humidity just slays me.
I mean, I prefer dry heat over humid, but I’ll take either over the cold
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.
Yes, current problem in Eastern Europe is not temperature but humidity, Dew Point to be precise it is 20-22C (~72F).
In FL: Air conditioning.
In HI: Breezes, fans.