Beating the Heat
Last night I had several dreams and every one of them had the same theme - cooling down. From standing under a waterfall, to being caught in a snow storm, to being stranded on an iceberg, and shivering in an ice cave my sub-conscious mind supplied me with my deepest desire which was to be cool. So I hauled a mattress out onto the deck where my husband was already sleeping, pulled a sheet over me, and continued to dream cold dreams.
We are currently enduring a heat wave on the west coast and that has brought forward many ideas from my visitors for the best ways to beat the heat. Among my visitors there are some who are a high risk during this season including those with chronic illnesses, young children, those who exercise vigorously, and some who are taking certain medications.
Here are the things we are doing to beat the heat:
- Venturing into the great outdoors only in the cooler early morning and late evening hours.
- Those who are into exercise are rising very early and are finished exercising before breakfast is served.
- When we do venture outside during the hot part of the day we stay in the shade as much as possible.
- We all wear sunblock and hats and we cover up by wearing light-colored, long-sleeved, light weight natural fiber shirts over bathing suits or over shorts and tank tops.
- Some of us ladies prefer to wear light-colored, floaty dresses made of very light weight fabrics.
- During the hot hours my visitors choose to visit museums, libraries, shopping malls and other air-conditioned indoor places. Tonight they are going to a aquatic center.
- We don’t have air conditioning in my home so we have placed bamboo curtains on the outisde of the south facing windows. On the inside we keep our blinds drawn and the windows just barely open. On the shady side we have the windows wide open to create cross drafts.
- We do have skylights that allow the heat that rises to escape and we use fans to help direct the hot air out the skylights, and to create cross breezes from the windows. My friend showed us that a bowl or flat tray of ice in front of a fan works just like an air conditioner.
- The RV’s and trailers my guests are accommodated in don’t have their AC units on when parked but they are parked in very shady areas where they get the benefit of the ocean breeze.
- Having enough fresh water in our well is always a summer concern and we are on a water conservation plan so water wasting sprinklers are out of the question. But we have found that taking cool sponge baths, immersing in a bathtub in tepid water, sitting in the kids’ paddling pool, and soaking our feet in buckets of cool water helps frequently throughout the day will help cool us down.
- In the early morning and late evening hours we head for the cold ocean water and emerge feeling refreshed and revitalized.
- Dehydration, which can happen quickly and go unnoticed can be a serious threat, so from the moment we rise until we retire we drink lots of water, fruit juices and cold green tea to keep hydrated, rather than drinking coffee and soft drinks.
- Large, heavy meals are more difficult to digest and foods that are high in protein such as meats increase metabolic heat. Consequently, we are eating 5 small and light meals rather than three cooked squares a day. We aren’t using the oven and we are doing almost all cooking outdoors on gas barbecues. Overall, we aren’t eating much meat but we are eating lots of salads and chilled fruits.
- We don’t run heat generating appliances during the day but instead choose to turn on only the essential ones in the cooler evening hours.
It’s sweltering hot and as I type this my hands are sweating. It’s time to wash them, put my feet in a bucket of water, and relax with a cold cloth on my forehead, while I drink a glass of cold cranberry juice. Please feel free to add to my 14 tips for keeping cool during a heat wave because we can use all the help we can get.
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Dearest TT, we too are having intense heat. There are some great ideas here. I too have started my hikes very early. And it is much cooler then, and I am loving having the trail more to myself.
The other thing, which you mention here, is that it’s so hot lately that I dehydrate even if I am NOT exercising. I have noticed that I had to drink a LOT more water than I normally do. And I drink a lot nothing under 3 liters.
I have also carried a misting bottle and will mist face, arms and legs and let it evaporate and find that cooling. I am so envious, and yet very happy for you, about being able to dive into the sea. WOW! That is amazing and sounds soooooooooooo good.
You are with me and in my thoughts and heart.
Love,
Robin
Hi timethief, We’ve just gotten over our heat wave here in the east. I live in the Pocono Mountains, so we are normally 8 to 10 degrees cooler than nearby cities like NYC and Philadelphia. Our humidity is usually lower as well. We only have to deal with the kind of heat that you are experiencing for about 10 days each summer, but those are a miserable ten days! We have no air conditioning, but we do use fans. I’ll have to try the tip of placing a tray of ice in front of my fan next time.
Stay cool, and I hope that you get a break from the oppressive conditions – at least for a couple of days. Ray
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TiTi
I got a great visual while reading your ways of cooling. I cold hear the ocean and imagine a refreshing run into the surf. I’ve never been to the west coast of Canada and can only imagine the beauty of it. I’m ashamed to say I’m quite accustomed to air conditioning to keep cool, but when I was young I spent summer afternoons in the cool basement reading. We don’t live near the shore but have plenty of shade tress. the temps here in Delaware have hovered around 37 to 42 degrees Celsius this summer. I remember my summers spent in Chongqing where the temp was 40 or more everyday in summer. Water is so important and light meals. Cool showers work for me. Ceiling fans work wonderfully too.
Cranberry juice is my favorite and drink it exclusively.
You offer great ways to beat the heat. Personally I can’t wait
for the chill of Autumn my favorite time of year.
May you be forever blessed!
If you have long hair, I find putting it up makes a huge difference – if I plait my hair or put it in a bun it lets the air get to the nape of the neck – heaven!
Take a cool shower before bedtime. I will even go as far as getting into bed still damp if the weather is really hot :)
Fill a metal reuseable drinking bottle three quarters full of a juice and water mix and place in freezer(do not fill bottle to the top, the liquid will expand as it freezes and burst the bottle). Remove from fridge when almost completely frozen – it will feel cold and refreshing to touch for some time and will be good to drink for just as long.
Turn the computer off – they generate a huge amount of heat!
You seemed to have covered just about everything. I actually love the heat, but I have this wonderful west facing deck rigged up with sheets from the top to floor. I then spray them with water and the evaporation does a nice job of cooling things off for awhile.
My best advice, is just to sit, read drink lots of water and enjoy!
Nick
Another couple of ideas – water with ice that has mint leaves frozen inside … suck on the ice too! We sometimes wet hankies or flannels and put them in the freezer for a bit for a bit of immediate relief when you are coming in from a hot outside. They’re not frozen, but they are reeeeeeaaaaallllly cool – even better if you get in a breeze.
I agree on all your advice about beating the heat. A lot of people are unaware of the danger that heatwaves pose. Drinking a lot of water is so important and it’s so funny how often I have to remind tourists about this. They come on holiday, drink alcohol like there’s no tomorrow and don’t realise the health risks of dehydration. Some people have to learn the hard way!
At home, we also keep our window shades down when the sun is shining. Fortunately our house have thick walls which keeps the interior cool. The porch doors are always open to allow the breeze in. We have air conditioner in the bedroom which is the only one in the house. Before I go to bed I turn it on for 10 minutes and turn it off once we’re ready to sleep. The thick walls of the room helps keep the cool in.
As for our meals, we only eat twice a day. Our main meal consisting of salad and fish or salad and meat. Drinking fresh fruit juices the whole day keeps our energy levels up but our body cool.
Summer has been extremely hot here in NY as well, with lots of humidity. I’m a hot weather person and even prefer exercising when the temperature peaks. In the mornings, when it’s a little cooler, I like to sit in the backyard, eat breakfast, and observe the various comings and goings of the little animals-birds, squirrels, insects-flitting around. It’s a pleasant and relaxing way to start the day. We do have an air conditioner, and so at different intervals during the day, I come inside to cool off and at those times go on the computer and visit BC. But I do enjoy the heat and don’t shy away from it, and wish, quite frankly, that summer would never end.
To me, summers on the Northwest coast are just perfect. Never gets as hot and humid as the summers in Ontario where I used to live for several decades. In fact, I often feel a slight cool undertone in the summer air here. Ah, well if I haven’t totally acclimatized at least I can visit someplace that’s abit more humid and it’ll still feel ok.
We don’t have air-conditioning even though we’re in a 10-yr. high rise building. Get alot of the cross breezes off the water. I’m glad..it saves on the energy bill.
Thanks for your tips TT, we seem to have gone through the heat wave here in the UK …now the weather is cooling down with a bit of showers every now and then..Just what we need.
timethief – That’s a great tip about the ice tray in front of the fan, thanks so much. It is warmer here in Hawai’i this month, but no heat wave by any means. It’s still cool in the evenings, rainy usually in the mornings, and warmer during the day. I save my walk for late afternoon when it starts to cool off. I am having to water plants more often, one got some leaf burn till I got hip to this.
Wishing you relief!
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Aside from many of the tips you offer, we use heat to cool down. Yes, you read that right. In the evenings we do two things, first, we have a hot tea. Usually a lemon/mint blend. Then, we have a tepid shower to cool the body, followed by a very warm, short shower. After being cooled off by the tepid water, the warm shower relaxes and comforts the body. And as you step out of the shower, the air around you feels cool on the skin. We head to bed slightly damp and refreshed, with the air around us still feeling cool. Perhaps it sounds a little wacked, having a hot tea and a hot shower during a heat wave, but it’s something we’ve done for years, and we swear by it…it’s a nice way to set yourself up for a more comfortable night’s sleep.
We also keep all of our south and west facing windows and doors closed during the day. Many people choose to leave all of the windows open, however I find that all it really does is allow the WARM breeze to blow in. We keep the house cool by closing the windows and the window coverings and just running a ceiling fan in the living space and kitchen.
We are lucky enough to live in a part of the province without much humidity, but the one time this summer that we traveled to southern Ontario I was afraid to breath for fear of drowning in the moist air!
Around here everything’s air conditioned, but when the power goes out, the panic begins. <: I'll never forget a couple of Augusts ago, when Hurricane Gustav (which never even HIT my area,) knocked out our power for days. Toward the end the military came into our flooded neighborhood to bring people food & whatnot. We had plenty of those necessities, but I could have kissed them for the bag of ice. A few ziplock bags of ice cubes became my absolutely best friends. They were absolutely delicious on the back of my neck. I never knew I could love ice so much…
I am curious as to what your actual temperatures are – I always think of Canada as a cool place! I am also curious as to whether you suffer with biting insects such as mosquitoes?
I am in the UK so we rarely get big peaks of weather at either end of the scale, July was hot and peaked at 28 degrees so still very manageable.
However, the first week of July saw us in San Antonio, Texas. That was hot, but it wasn’t the heat that bothered us as both of us are regular salamanders when it comes to the sun, the thing that wore us out was the humidity. It was awful – over 90%. I am sure people living there are acclamatised, but for visitors it is very difficult – however they do have great AC in all the buildings.
A tip to add to your list :
One thing I found in effective in Texas, was to get a can of ice cold soft drink, wrap it in a thin cloth and then place it at the back of my neck and lean back on to it. Really does cool you down – until the can warms up.
Today sees us in mid- August and our temperatures are in the low twenties, perfect weather for gardening!
So, I shall visualize you, wearing a flowing kaftan, feet in a bucket of cold water and a can of coke strapped to your neck…
Smiles and blessings
The heat in Chicago is unbearable. I hardly go out unless its necessary. But, I guess I should appreciate the heat cause its gonna be one heck of a winter.