How do you cope with Hot Weather?

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At the moment in England especially where I live in the South we are having extremely hot weather reaching up to 35C/92F. We are so not use to it. It is not just hot it is humid. Also I live on the top floor of a block of flats where heat rises. Sleeping at night is a challenge as the heat is continual.

Now usually a heat wave I can handle but this it is getting to the point where it is making me irritable.

I think literally everybody is feeling the same.

Except me. Usually UK summers are unpredictable, and some summers we've only had 2 or 3 weeks max of hot weather, with the rest of the summer being cool, dull and wet. That is a disappointment.

This is a true summer. Yes, we do need some rain. But it does feel weird Brits begging for rain! I don't mind the heat, but we do need a fair amount of rain to soak the ground and prevent fires. Oh, and a few thunderstorms too.

Ok, going to sleep is difficult when it's hot. The fan is on constantly, the windows are open, and we are laying on top of the covers. It is even too hot to cuddle or have sex. We've even tried patting each other with a damp, cold flannel to cool us down, but even that doesn't make us any colder.

But I seem to be the only one not too affected by the hot weather. It's the cold weather I hate. Back in February and early March we had freezing temperatures, and I could not function in that at all. I didn't even want to get out of bed. I am sensitive to the cold, so sensitive that I feel headachey and nauseas if I get too cold, even if I am all wrapped up in a warm coat, scarf, gloves, hat and boots. The heat doesn't affect me that way. As long as I have a drink handy, I'm fine. I can survive it.

We routinely get hot weather where I am and many of the older apartment buildings aren't insulated. Those who have air conditioners use them. Those who don't sit in front of fans and complain about the heat. At my previous building it became so hot that the air conditioners weren't effective enough and we started hosing down the roof.

A few years back temperatures remained near 100F at night and a number of people drove down to the beach and slept on top of their car.

Sometimes the city opens emergency cooling centers where people can stay. All of our malls and office buildings and most shops are also air conditioned so if a person works full time, in most instances they only have to put up with the heat when they get home.

I hear Saudi Arabia has air conditioned parking structures.

I forgot to add. On that 100F night I bought a big bag of ice, wrapped it in a towel, and slept with that.

Sounds like a good idea.

My apartment was not designed for hot weather. Lovely and hot in the winter but this week it is unbearable hot.

I three quarter fill an old pop bottle with water and then I put it in the freezer. Then I close the windows and put the ice-bottle in front of a fan. The fan and bottle acts like air-conditioning and helps me relax. It is something I use at night to cool my bedroom before I go to bed. The fan is set to its highest setting and this keeps the ice from melting, the ice stays set for about 40 minutes. I learned this from a radio phone-in some years ago, when someone who had once lived in a desert gave advice.

When I‘m working in the office, I go to the toilet once per hour and put cold water on my arms/face.

I usually sleep in the basement, and try to spend as much waking time down there as I need.

We have AC, but this is the first year we've needed it, and we haven't bothered hooking it up.

At work, I just suffer a lot. I stand in front of a fan as much as possible, and I'll spray myself with water if I need to.

I stay inside as much as possible Went to Colorado earlier this month and was very jealous of the cool nights & mornings, dry heat afternoons. Atlanta is always hot every hour of the day in summer

Hydration is key. Taking tennis lessons has reinforced that practice.

Without air-conditioners, it's important to keep the inside air moving. If you live on the top floor, it's probably hotter indoors than out. Open windows on the windward and leeward sides, and use electric fans to keep the air moving in and out.

A lot of older buildings in hot climates aren't actually designed for heat either...probably because they were designed by people from the mid west who thought the climates were more temperate than they actually are.

At my previous place, in the evening when it cooled down outside I would try to shunt the trapped heat inside out with fans, but there really was no great solution other than air confitioners, fans, ice, cold wash cloths and going someplace else. Eventually I installed a second a conditioner as it got hotter inside than outside and the one only brought temperatures down to 90F on very hot days. I worried a lot about the power going out on those days because I would have had to have made emergency accomodations for my cat. Thankfully it didn't.

I have the same heat troubles as all of you. There's a Heat Alert from the City, which they took down for today (down 2 degrees) and will probably put back tomorrow (expect 2+ degrees). There are cooling centres. The Police and volunteers are going door-to-door seeking overly-wilted people. I've been out twice and had heatstroke twice, both times going to and from air-conditioned places in air-conditioned cars - it was the walking in between - maybe 15 minutes? Now I need food etc. and have money in the bank, but I'm afraid to go out.

I wish I could do your shopping for you

It's not the hot weather that spoils outings for me, it's the friggin kids being on summer holiday that is the sh***y thing.

But at least you don't get hordes of 12-14 year-olds invading the buses at around 3 pm, and making life absolute hell for other passengers.

Also, as someone who knows a fair bit about buses in the UK, Jo, have you any idea why they blow hot air through the vents at the back of the bus in the hottest months of the year, whereas when it's sub-zero in December and January the heating is always turned off? That's what always happens in this part of the country anyway. I asked a driver to explain it to me recently, and he told me it was a technical issue he had no control over.