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?
Indian here, so experienced with hot climate.
- Wear loose cotton clothes (long-sleeved if stepping out in the hot sun)
- Keep yourself hydrated.
- Avoid soft/ aerated drinks/ soda & coffee as they’ll dehydrate you. Stick to cool water, ice chips, fresh lemonade made with water, fresh fruit juices, melons, spinach-cucumber-onion-tomato salads, yoghurt,
- Eat light.
- Stick to well-ventilated rooms with good air-circulation (fans help)
- Cold water showers to cool down
- Sweating is good. It’ll cool you down. This is also why Indians eat spicy food and drink hot tea even in hottest summer. Get sweaty then take a quick cold-water rinse.
- If you have to step outside in the hot sun, umbrella, hats, caps etc are your friends.
- Wet towel on the back of the neck for a quick cool down.
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 riceGood luck.
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.
Ok but what about the uncomfortable keyboard? WHAT DO WE DO???
comfort it :P
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.
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 beat inside the house.
Sweat box gang woo!
The one thing I don’t see mentioned enough for keeping your apartment cool is to close all windows and draw all curtains during the day and open them when the temperature outside is lower than that inside (normally ~an hour after sunset).
Heat reflects off all surface, so it’s not just about keeping light out.
Blinds on the outside of your windows help significantly too.
I wish the temperature outside dropped below my house temp. If I run AC at even a money saving 83 degrees inside, the exterior doesn’t drop below that until around 6am.
I mean if you have air conditioning, then most tips here are irrelevant and the only tip would be “put your air conditioning on”.
Almost all areas on or north of the Alps in Europe don’t have AC (cos they never needed it) and buildings are made to keep heat in.
Totally. Blows my mind that people can’t seem to understand that if it’s hotter outside than inside, the inside won’t get any cooler by opening windows.
Last summer in London (42 C!!) we became a box of shadows during the day. Keep the cool inside.
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.
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.
Avoid being out in the midday sun. If you do, try to walk in the shade as much as possible.
If your windows have external shades close them down when the sun is hitting that side of the house/appartment so that the heating up of objects from the sunlight happens outside not inside.
Wear shorts/skirts and loose clothes of thin textites that don’t retain much heat (such as cotton).
If you’re going to be out for long periods, bring water, ideally cold water.
Sure, if you have AC or, even better, a swiming pool, it’s a lot easier to keep cool, but these suggestions will work even for those who can’t afford those things.
Cold water will make you thirstier, you will sweat it super quickly which will feel refreshing but you will have used up all that water.
With that said, putting a 1.5L bottle of water in the freezer and carrying that is also an option.
I don’t think conservative water is necessary.
Drink cool water help body cool off faster. Sweat also help cool off.
If the combined effect make you drink more water, then keep drinking.
I recommend getting a metal water bottle and carrying that around when you’re sightseeing or any activity that keeps you outside in the sun for long.
Also I personally never noticed any extra sweating when drinking cold water versus ambient temperature water, and I live in Portugal were we regularly get 40C or more in August. Generally, if it’s hot enough you’ll sweat more simply from the heat (as sweating is a natural cooling mechanism) even if all you drink is plain tap water. Sure, if you don’t drink water you’ll sweat less, as you’re getting dehydrated so the body will cut down on that.
Were did you learn that specific piece of information about cold water making people sweat more?
Tbh I’m pretty sure it’s just old people tales from my pueblo so you might as well be right
Use fans. Air blowing on you will make you feel cooler. If you don’t have air conditioning some houses can benefit from one fan blowing inwards from the cool/shady side of the house and one fan blowing outwards on the hot/sunny side of the house.
Try to do outdoor things early in the morning or late in the evening. If you need to be outdoors during the hottest parts of the day stay in the shade, wear sunscreen, move more slowly, drink plenty of water.
I need AC for about 6 months out of the year (used to be three, maybe three and half) here in the east/south US. The humidity is so bad it makes 90F seem like 110F and even the shade won’t cool you down and it drops very little when the sun goes down.
I’m replying because my electrical panel is being replaced right now and I have no power (the router is on a batt backup)…it heated up in here and I’m able to psychologically deal with it for now…if the installation goes south and I’ll be without power for more than a few hours I’ll take the cat and head to my sister’s place :)
Damn, good luck to you, man. I was lucky enough to have a thunderstorm at night so today is not as hot as it was yesterday
We had a cold front move through yesterday…dropped it about a degree. haha.
I LOVE thunderstorms at night! If one passes during the day, it just makes it 10x more humid .
Also eastern US. This past Saturday was a what-should-be-nice 79F with a “real feel” reading of 103F. Absolutely insane.
I’m lucky to have ultra-effective AC window units, though I’ve been avoiding looking at my electric statements since summer started because… yikes…
I hope you get your AC back soon. As you mentioned, the humidity is a real killer right now.
You want to get some nice blackout thermal curtains for any windows facing south. You might actually need 2 sets of curtains to fully block the sun. I’ve noticed a big difference this year since I added a 2nd thermal curtain on top of the 1 I had. Unfortunately that only helps so much and as long as it’s unbearably hot outside you’re going to see the heat increase inside as the day goes on. At night open all of your windows and run fans to get as much airflow as possible while it’s cooler outside. In the morning close your windows the minute the outside temperature is the same as the inside temperature. As long as it’s cooler outside, the windows should be open.
Sleep during mid-day
If you have a basement, spend time on it. It’s much, much cooler below ground. The earth is a great insulator.
Go out to movie theaters, malls, or other public spaces that have AC. Visit public pools, beaches, etc.
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.
Get a desktop. Despite what people are going to tell you, laptops are not an optimal choice for gaming. It usually always comes down to the fact that those little tiny cases are not efficient at removing heat.
Over heating and under performing is the typical story for gaming laptops.
Bands making those gaming laptops are the only one telling you they are ideal.
Desktop is mostly largely superior in any aspects except size and weight.
The comment is kinda bold but I can’t blame you since you don’t know anything about me and stuff
I have a desktop it’s specs are on par with laptop’s ones. I don’t use desktop nowaday because it’s a less power efficient option whilst I can accomplish all tasks on my laptop. No, I didn’t buy a “gaming” laptop, lmao, they’re all a joke. I only mentioned videogames since I play them occasionally and it was a good example of how bad the heat was at the time
External keyboard and mouse on laptop.
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.
