It would be an understatement to say that we are currently enduring a bit of a heatwave right now. The mercury continues to rise and we continue to melt as we enter the dog days of summer. While I certainly prefer the brilliant sun of the summer over the miserable overcast clouds of the winter, there has to be something that can be done about the heat.
How do you stay cool during the summer? What’s your best strategy for combatting the heat and staying comfortable during these warmer days and nights? Here are a few techniques that you may want to try. Feel free to share some tips and secrets of your own through the comment form at the bottom of the page.
A Damp Towel on the Back of the Neck
When you are suffering from a heat stroke or a high fever, you are sometimes told to place a damp towel on your forehead or on the back of your neck. This is a very effective way to lower your core temperature, since the moisture naturally allows for a cooling effect and improved heat dissipation. When the towel starts to get a little too warm, head back over to the bathroom sink to recharge it with some fresh cold water.
A Very Hot or a Very Cold Drink
This will vary based on your cultural preferences. In the Western world, we usually look for the coldest drink possible when we’re boiling. Grab an ice cold glass of water. Sip on a terrific watermelon smoothie. This can provide for some great short-term relief from the heat, since you get the cool sensation of the drink. Ironically, studies have shown that cold drinks have the opposite effect in the long run, since your body reacts to the influx of cold by increasing your core body temperature to compensate.
That’s where the Eastern philosophy may be more appropriate. That’s why people in Southeast Asia and India drink so much piping hot tea. This gets your body to sweat and while you’ll feel very hot initially, the net effect is a lower core body temperature. This is the opposite of the Western approach. This is yet another reason why coffee is good for you, though the caffeine may increase your heart rate and generate additional heat.
Shutting It All Down
Rather than trying to cool yourself directly, you can beat the summer heat by minimizing the heat sources in your home. There’s a good chance that your computer, whether it be a laptop or a desktop, is filling the air around it with heat. The same can be said about your modem, router, television, Xbox, and any number of other electronics. It may be tough, but it could be a good idea to shut it all off.
This will significantly reduce the amount of heat being generated in your home. It also reduces your electricity consumption, as well as your carbon footprint. Mother Nature will love you for it.
The Air-Conditioned Refuge of the Mall
I realize that this almost defeats the whole purpose of enjoying the summer weather, but sometimes the heat is just too much to bear. Of all the public places in town, the shopping mall usually has one of the most reliable air conditioning systems available. It’s always nice and chilly in there during the summer and it can give you a good opportunity to unplug from the matrix while you’re at it. Grab a cool beverage, hang out in the food court, and do a little people-watching.
A Wet Towel on the Window
This idea follows the same concept as the wet towel on the back of the neck. I don’t recall exactly, but I think this solution came from a recent Lifehacker post. Essentially, you drape a wet towel over an open window. The moisture in the towel will cool the air as it enters your home, helping to minimize the amount of heat that makes its way through the window.
Alternatively, you can try spending more time in the basement. Heat rises and basements are usually quite shrouded from the outside sun, so they usually end up being the coolest places in the house.
What do you do to keep cool?
Living in Florida I can say that:
1. the towel should be wrapped around the neck as it covers the main arteries to the brain and cools down the blood therefore your brain and core temperature.
2. Cold or hot drinks do not absorb into the body fast enough to do any good in a hurry. If you want your body to absorb the liquid to cool you down it needs to cool or room temperature to be immediately absorbed into the body.
3. Food like the watermelon mentioned is very good for the body as it contains easily burned sugar and carbs that does not make the body work harder to use.
4. Eating a banana is also good because it adds potassium to your system avoiding cramps.
Just those few things make for a safety net to avoid heat stroke.
I’d be careful with the banana idea, since the potassium makes you attractive to mosquitoes, doesn’t it?
You’re right about the bananas. When you eat potassium rich foods, your body release more lactic acid, and that’s what attracts mosquitoes. Same thing happens when you eat salty foods.
Mosquitoes are also attracted to fruity and floral odors.
There are various plant oils that will help repel mosquitoes though. Maybe you can carry a cedar block with you. 😉
Where’s the “edit” button? 😉 I meant “releases”.
Mosquitoes only grow around standing or stagnant water, so if you are in a dry area you don’t need to worry. But, that is why they make mosquito repellent.
I’d rather put in the spray than have cramps.
The air-conditioned indoors are a good place to be.
When I used to live in Michigan, we didn’t even have air-conditioning. When it got hot, we just turned the fans on.
Now, it would be difficult to imagine living without air-conditioning. It feels nostalgic just to have the air conditioning off and have a fan running instead. 😉
A wet towel in the window actually helps (though getting it to cover the window is not easy). We used to travel every summer with my dad when he was in merchant navy and once the air conditioning system on the ship broke.
It took them 2 days to fix it since we were in the middle of the sea but it felt like we were living in a boiler! That is until my sister figured out the wet towel in the window technique. We also draped the wet towel on those portable fans. Worked like a charm! Wasn’t cold but it was sweltering either.
Coming from a tropical country where we have Summer all year round, our threshold for getting heat stroke could be higher compared to those residing in temperate climate.
As such, we don’t specifically do anything extras, e.g. wet towel on the window, to beat the heat.
Having said that, finding refuge in the comfort of air-conditioned malls or public libraries is always a welcome relief from the heat.
A/C is the best. I try to go from building to car to building, spending as little time outside of an air conditioned room here.
Air conditioning does condition you to lower your resistance to heat. Mind you, that’s not a scientific analysis, but only my subjective opinion.
I’m far less tolerant of heat since I’ve had air-conditioning than I was before. Heck, I used to go outside and play in the heat. Good grief. I don’t even want to sit in it now.
If you live in a climate that is hot all the time and unbearable at some point AC doesn’t condition you at all. I love the AC, but it’s not hard to take the heat and humidity because I’ve dealt with it for 33 years in FL. Plus it has gotten worse in the last 10 years because of climate changes and the drought.
We only have hot summers, but they’ve always been hot.
The first year my family moved here, though, it was warm outside at Christmas, which was something I’d never experienced, and I don’t think have experienced since.