How do you cope with Hot Weather?

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I chew ice all day long. Not recommended by the American Dental Association as it cracks your teeth. Mother says my ice craving can be attributed to pica, a psychological disorder characterized by an appetite for non-nutritive substances. I’d really rather chew ice than eat most food.

Ice is certainly better than something like lead chips......

I love to chew ice, too. I've been trying to cut down.

To top things off. I live next door to a Turkish Restaurant and they are having one of there parties tonight. So I have a challenge now First one to tackle the heat and now tolerating the noise.

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. It has been getting up around the 100/F mark here in Texas every day for the last few weeks, plus it's almost always humid. Other than when I take my dog out to let him use the restroom, I try and stay inside and in front of the AC as much as possible. Luckily the air conditioning was fixed a few weeks ago at work, so it's not that bad there.

Interesting to hear that in England it's not generally humid but has been during the hot period of this particular summer. I live next to one of the Great Lakes and it's rarely ever humid and generally stays cool during the summer. It's been unusually humid coupled with the heat. Where is this dastardly humidity coming from?? I can't stand humidity and don't like hot weather. 60 degrees (15 Celsius) and non-humid in the spring, summer and fall mainly overcast and I'd be perfectly happy with that!

Part of the reason I don't like humidity is that any physical exertion of duration and I sweat like crazy. Throw humidity into the mix where my sweat can't evaporate and I drench my clothes and overheat. Hate it. One of the nicknames my wife coined for me years ago is..."The Furnace". I need it cool when sleeping for the same reason.

AC or fans is how we cope. I love cool/cold weather!!

Is there anywhere that is not having a heat wave or hasn't had one this year?

One big thing is stay hydrated, also if outside try and stay out of the sun as much as possible as obviously that is where it is hottest...at least that is for outside.

Dallas, Texas, had five straight 110 degrees plus days last week. Now, it's "only" around 100.

Also this^

I stay inside and drink lots of water.

its the hottest day at 116 (46c) in Phoenix.

Lake Michigan is always feeding us truckloads of heat and humidity this time of year =|

By sweating, sweating and sweating, occasionally stopping to sweat.

Any unusual cravings should be investigated by a doctor.

Lake Ontario too. Magna, are you on Lake Superior?

I've always been interested in how people coped with extreme temperatures in antiquity and pre industrial times.

As far as heat goes, in the U.S. in areas that got hot, buildings were often had high ceilings to allow the hot air to rise, and were made of brick. Those towers on Victorian mansions were to allow hot air to rise and cold air to funnel down. Porches were also used to provide shade and a cool place to stay on hot days. My great grandmother said people would also hang wet sheets in open windows.
Some windows on old buildings slide downward at the top to allow the hot air near the ceiling out.

The windows in my old building opened in this manner but they were jammed and there was still a dead area above them where the hot air would become trapped.

In the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa, many buildings and dwellings were/are mudbrick, which is a good insulator.

In India people often sleep on their roofs in hot weather.

Of course people were still miserable.

Of particular interest though is how hunter gatherers deal with extreme temperatures.

Half of central Australian aboriginals have a genetic mutation that helps them tolerate both hot and cold temperatures better than others, and the indigenous people of the tip of south America...the Tierra Del Fuego people, have metabolic adaptions that help them tolerate cold weather, aweing Europeans with their tendency to run around naked and barefoot in weather in the 40sF.

Most caucasians are not very well adapted for heat as they tend to have relatively stalky builds on average. But they can't tolerate cold as well as the Tierra Del Fuego people.

For whatever reason, the Tierra Del Fuego people never thought much to make a full wardrobe, preferring to light fires instead. It's possible that this had something to do with the rain and frequency they had to be out in it and got wet, or maybe they were just always kind of hot or the materials they had available weren't optimal. They had access to seal skins but maybe those were too warm for them.

In Canada right now there are many places that are reaching the 30 to 35 degree Celcius mark as well. My strategy for this is to always live on the very bottom floor of whatever building I live in. That helps a little. Buying an air conditioner is an absolute must in weather like that.

Thats approx the temp I was outside in the full sun working in today.. and I have to wear safety shoes, jeans, hard hat, safety vest, glasses & gloves. Could be worse.. but still, it’s hot. I drank about a pot of coffee before work, and then drank ~5L of water during work. Thankfully it was relatively light duty lifting today.

At home? Windows open. Fan on. Sometimes leave some upstairs windows open at night. We have a small portable air conditioner that got plugged in for a few hours yesterday on the main floor. When it gets a couple degrees (37 or so) hotter like it tends to in August, I’ll sometimes go down to the basement to sleep where it’s cool - but I think I’ve only done that one or two nights in the last 6 years. I tend to just stay in my bed upstairs and toss and turn a bit.

Working, I reminded myself of a Facebook meme I saw the other day.. it’s not 120f and I don’t have to hike around with a 70lb military pack on, so w/e, I’ll survive.

Think this is hot, though? Just wait til next year.. and the year after that, and then the one after that. We’ve f****d the planet so hard that things are REALLY going to heat up. In a mere few decades or so large areas are going to experience deadly heatwaves & if we haven’t murdered everyone via manufactured war yet, there will be more than 1 Billion climate refugees seeking cooler, inhabitable, places to live.