Assume its 90-95 and you want it to feel 70-75 outdoors. What all can you do to make it cooler?
Some ideas I know of are
Sit near a body of water. Water absorbs heat better than the air, making the surroundings a little cooler
Sit in the shade of a tree, as the tree absorbs some of the sunlight
Keep some ice cubes nearby to put on the back of your neck if it gets too hot
wear a white outfit
Get a solar powered or battery powered fan
Shave bodyhair in the crotch, armpits and head (unlikely)
Beyond that I really don’t know what else to do. Would sitting under a tarp placed under a tree provide more cooling or less? Does the color or material of the tarp matter? When wearing clothes what fabrics should a person wear?
Sweat is a primary cooling mechanism for your body. If you don’t take in enough water, you can’t put out enough sweat. As sweat evaporates off of your skin, it takes heat with it.
Cool wet towel around neck. It will tend to cool the blood in your major arteries that will cool the rest of you. Same with wrists. Run cold water on them or use cold wet towel.
I put hand towels soaked in cold water on my head and around my neck when I’m mowing. I also have a big bottle of water with me. I stay a lot cooler that way.
Of course my favorite way to stay cool outside is to lie on my big float in the pool sipping cold beer which is floating nearby in my floating cooler.
Pshhh…90-95 is a “cool day” 'round these parts. Now when it gets up around 115 . . . well, the simple answer to that is to just not stay outside longer than it takes to walk from your (air-conditioned) car to whatever building you’re going into.
While the effect is correct, you have the cause wrong. Bodies of water resist temperature change better than land areas. They do not absorb heat better. In fact, in strict terms, air absorbs heat MUCH more easily than water. That’s why it gets hot faster.
As for the heat itself, well, at some point it becomes an internal change. You simply have to say “fuck it,” and embrace the heat for what it is. This change of attitude will make you feel better. I promise.
Embrace the heat and humidity. Love the sweat. Let your body tan and avoid sunscreen so you can get all that glorious Vitamin D from the Sun. Carry a bandana to wipe your face with like fat guys from New Orleans in the movies. Drink a cold beer for the contrast.
Cover your skin from the sun with a cottony light colored material. It cannot absorb the heat, it bounces it off. this goes for long sleeved oversized shirts. If your skin is hot, you are hot ( duh).
Always wear sunscreen. Even with a shirt on. Shirts are not UV protectors that you think they are. They help alot, but still, play it safe. Tans are so last century.
Wear a big floppy hat and sunglasses. The more squinting you do, the more exhausted you are.
Always carry drinking water on you.
Squirt yourself with a hose when you get a chance or a spritzer bottle. (At disney, these spritzer/fan combo’s are $20 :eek: ) They retail for $5 elsewhere.
Stay out of the sun between 2-4pm, the hottest times of the day. If you garden, do it in the morning. If you can’t do it at 6am, do it after 7pm.
You know those embarrassing umbrella hats? Those things are amazing in the cooling factors. Bonus points given if you wear it at Disney and you have kids that are old enough to be mortified.
gets out her notebook, “658 Ways to Be The Meanest Mom Ever”, and starts taking notes
In a similar vein, those conical woven hats they wear on the rice fields of Asian countries are amazingly cooling - they cast their shadow over your neck as well as keep the sun off your head. And they have a little inner ring which keeps the air flowing - the cone doesn’t actually touch your head. Probably not the height of fashion in the city - but I wear one when conducting Herb Walks, gardening or camping.
Don’t just drink water, drink ICE water (or tea, or soda, or whatever.) Hold the ice in your mouth. It’s amazing how much cooler that will make you feel.
I drove a LOT of miles in a non-air-conditioned car in Georgia. Ice in the mouth is one of the few things that kept me from totally turning into a puddle of sweat on the front seat.
If you’re going to be working up a sweat then you can always use the following:
Wet your t-shirt completely and put it on. Wear a light flannel shirt over the wet t-shirt. As you work, your sweat will keep your t-shirt wet and cool against your body while the flannel prevents the shirt from drying out too quickly. If you stop to take a break, simply wet the shirt again before going back to work. When I worked in the fields, this is what all of the farmworkers did. It really works well as long as you’re working and sweating.
