I don’t have much advice on how to keep cool the heat. Right now it’s 94 F and the humidity is 40% (pretty darn low for here, actually). One is just not going to “beat” that kind of heat. About all that can be done is make sure that you hydrate often and just deal with it. You’re going to sweat a lot. Mostly, it is not going to evaporate. I worked outside all day Saturday and went through 3 full sets of clothes. Once one set was thoroughly drenched I would go in, shower off, put on dry clothes and then get back to working. A shower and a little A/C does wonders to recharge me!
You are right about that. I have a BIL who will sweat buckets in what most people consider delightful 70 degrees or so. His preference is for meat-locker level AC. But he is perfectly happy out on the golf course on a hot day.
Man - last Sun he looked like a drowned rat!
I think many/most people can benefit from trying to see if they can adjust their attitude towards things they have limited control over. Another example from the golf course - there are often gnats. In my mind, mildly irritating, but no big deal. They don’t bite or anything. Well, some guys act like they are the worst thing ever, spraying bug dope, and swatting at and bitching about them. When people ask me whether the gnats bother me, my response is generally, “Not as much as the guys who bitch endlessly about them!”
The cold is another thing. Yeah - I know it is cold. So get good outerwear and layer up. In Chicago, if I wait until weather is perfect to do anything outside, well - I’ll be spending most of the year indoors.
So long as you take precautions to ensure that the heat is not health threatening, just enjoy yourself and change clothes and shower regularly!
A hat and a loose long sleeve shirt can help, sunblock of course. But mostly I just avoid the sun, especially at the hottest times of the day from 11-4 or so. I work on the front of my house in the morning because the sun is mostly on the back of the house then. If I have to be in the sun for whatever reason, I drink a lot and take breaks in the shade.
I love my Tilley tropical weight Air-Flo hat. It’s as light as a feather and lets cooling air in through the mesh “windows”. I have the broad-brimmed one as shown in the link. It must be ten years old and still looks brand-new.
I stopped using cotton T-shirts on the hottest days and bought a couple of Under Armour T’s. They make a huge difference.
And back when I used to ride my road bike, I’d keep a towel rolled around some ice cubes in a cooler back in the car and wrap that around my neck after the ride for a good cool-down.
I’ve ordered some gel-ice-packs. They’re the kind you soak in water, freeze 'em and use 'em. I’ll be able to cut them into strips and wrap my cooling towel around them so my neck will kept cold. Since the freezer’s in the garage, it will be easy to swap them out.
(I find that the heat getting to my head is especially bad. It makes me stupid and things start to go wrong. Esp. a problem when using power tools or painting or using hand tools …)
I’m gathering names/brands for cooler t-shirts. I think that will help as well.
As to hats: First, not sure if a dry mesh type or a wet cooling one is best. But I’m looking at the meshier ones first. Amazon is a cesspool of knock-offs, of course. Going with name brands from their web sites is pricier, of course.
My dad spent over forty years working on the Kansas state highway crew in all kinds of weather. One of his favorite tricks to dealing with heat on the job was to stuff several light washcloths into a wide mouthed thermos and then fill it up with a mix of rubbing alcohol and water. Seal it up and toss into the freezer overnight. The alcohol keeps the water from freezing and adds to the cooling effect when you run a clean, chilled towel over your face and across the back of your neck.
The differences are wider than that. Some people are not perfectly happy out on a hot day, and it’s not all a matter of attitude (though I agree that in some others it’s the attitude that’s the problem.)
My parents lived for a while in a house in Florida three very long blocks from the beach. I visited once in the summer. I’d walk down to the beach, where I was fine as long as I spent most of the time in the ocean, and then walk back to the air-conditioned house; the walk in that heat was long enough to bring me near my limit but not long enough to bring me dangerously close. Once on the walk back I came across a neighbor of theirs who was outside working on something, I’ve forgotten what, while on his black-topped driveway; full sun, 90+ F temperature, heat coming down from above and also back off the hot blacktop. He looked entirely comfortable, and wanted to talk. After about ten minutes of that I had to interrupt, apologize, and say that I needed to move on; because if I’d stayed there much longer I would have passed out. That wasn’t attitude; it was different amounts of heat adaptation in different people.
Yup. Confusion is a common symptom. If you start noticing this, go cool down. (Presuming you don’t have to go to the hospital because you ran a tool into yourself; though if you do, they’ll probably treat you for the overheating as well as for the injury.)
I can’t wear polyester, especially in heat, because I’ll itch and end up with an awful rash. I mostly wear cotton but I did discover quite some time ago that hemp fabric wicks sweat way faster than cotton and it dries about twice as fast as well so light hemp or hemp-cotton blend fabric clothing is the best solution I’ve ever found to get that balance of cooling but not running around drenched all day. Hemp also does not have the stank factor the polyester wicking fabrics have and it gets softer and softer the more you wash it. It’s super strong too, I had one pair of hemp/cotton shorts that took almost ten years of nearly constant summer wear to finally wear out to the point they could no longer be repaired.
Whoo-hoo! Worked out side in 90+ temps (and humid) today. Trimmed all the trails through my woods, (nature is trying very diligently to reclaim that which is hers.) Also shoveled rock, mowed, shoveled dirt, pulled weeds, cut up sod and moved to appropriate bare spots. Then I went for a little motorcycle ride. Now it’s after 10 P.M. Neighbors are blasting fireworks. I got a couple beers in me and ready to call it a day. Still very hot out. Secret to keeping cool? Think about the ice cold beer to come at the end of the day!
I want to highlight this given the number of Dopers of a certain age.
As you get older your ability to keep cool decreases. You might not even realize you are dehydrated, etc.
I’ve noticed an increasing problem keeping cool. In addition to aging, I wonder if it is also because my main physical activity is swimming. The pool doesn’t trigger the same bodily responses as other activities. So I think I’m “out of shape” cooling wise.
The helpful responses here have lead me to be better educated about clothing, etc. But there’s more to learn.
E.g., alcohol on wet rags was mentioned. I wondered if some on my cooling towel would help. But is it safe for the material? Googling the brand and alcohol was spectacularly useless. The material is PVA. Guess what the “A” stands for. :smack:
Unbeknownst to me it was 90 degrees and 90 % humidity yesterday. A huge cherry tree split into pieces in our horses’ pasture. I spent a few hours cutting it up and couldn’t believe how much I was sweating! Adding insult to injury, my vitiligo forced me to wear long sleeves, lonmg pants, and a hat.
