How do you guys cope ??

[Silly Moustache]

I have stood in the middle of the volcano in Nisyros, Greece in late summer.
I have climbed Mt. Tiede in Tenerife.
I have driven to Terlingua Texas and Ojinaga in Mexico.
I have driven from Sacramento to Kramer Junction on the 395, ten to Santa fe via the I40 (?)
i have walked through the little stone paths of Thira at midday with a Billingham bag wih two Canon F1ns and lenses from 15 m/m to 300m/m!
i have driven north to south on Crete (no real roads just tracks in a Fiat 500!)

but ....

I've never been so hot as in southern England in July and August! 85 to 100 F with RH from 60 to 23 and back again in 24 hours!
Walking a few hundred yards up to my allotments yesterday afternoon the sun actually hurt my face and arms.

The south of England is now officially declared a drought area.
In France the river Loire has dried up.

This stuff is getting scary.

[buddyhu]

Yes, the weather is getting more scary each year. And my body’s thermoregulation is not functioning all that well since I left middle age.

I don’t really “cope”. I just get strategic about how to function without doing much in the peak daylight hours.

[imwjl]

Good luck regardless.

I'm not a natural athlete nor do well in sun or heat but have gotten much better by keeping up fitness and activity. Humid heat is worse. When I worked in the Mideast long ago and hard labor in US I learned from others to change my routine and body clock getting more done early and late.

Matters got worse in recent years because with age I can get PMLE but same dressing to help that is heat relief. Keep your skin covered with breathable fabric if you have to go out.

The watershed or make or break difference is as little as 30 min of exercise a day. The being able to do some sustained elevated heart rate even from walking makes a difference.

[TBman]

We hide inside with the a/c on. When I was younger I loved the warmer days (to a point), now, forget it.

[j38guitar]

Is it very humid? Because 85-100 F is not very hot for us in California...

[ewalling]

I have to say I don't really feel much difference this summer from any other - it's always hot in Miami in summer, and whether it's fractionally more so this year I can't tell. And, of course we have air conditioning in the house and our cars.

But my brother lives in the south of England - Lowestoft in Suffolk - and he told me recently that the weather is okay there because it's on the coast and they get the breeze. For people living in more inner-city, urban areas, things seem to be much worse.

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by ewalling

I have to say I don't really feel much difference this summer from any other - it's always hot in Miami in summer, and whether it's fractionally more so this year I can't tell. And, of course we have air conditioning in the house and our cars.

I can imagine that once you get to 40°Ç or so, a degree or more may not make that much difference *perceptually*, esp. not if you have A/C. Which of course makes the temperature outside even higher (in cities that's not just an academic difference) plus it doesn't help preventing further global warming.
FWIW, government institutions in France and Spain now can only turn on the AC once inside temperatures hit 26°C (27 in Spain), and I presume they are supposed to be used to maintain those temperatures rather than bringing them down. That'ss not going to help productivity if my mental function is any indication...

I don't think it the predicted temperature rises are to be taken literrally, or at least not as the only aspect. They must be of the max. temperatures because it's becoming clear that the average temperatures are rising much more: we're going to be having more and longer hotter periods in summer, undoubtedly with frequent droughts (the Netherlands is also in stage 2 of 3 of its drought "plan").

Really great news when age is degrading your already low tolerance to heat... For now I still find that I can still cope following the principle that always worked: keeping physically *lightly* active with things that also occupy your brain. Back in the vacation-with-parents days that meant walking around visiting things if not at the beach. Nowadays it means smallish diy projects, working in a shaded part of the garden or cooking outside. Sitting behind a computer being productive is definitely not how I can cope (unless you measure productivity in forum posts )
Studying guitar is hard though.

[Bob Womack]

There are hot times here in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic where it reaches 100' and 83% humidity. When it gets that hot it is simply no fun outdoors. However, there are people who have worked up to those temps and are comfortable. I get up in the South, on the west slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains, where summers were easily in the 90s to near 100' with high humidity. At night we opened all the windows and blew fans on ourselves. We were well acquainted with the term, "the fever heat of summer." As a young man I did farm work, framed houses, and worked as a lumberjack in that weather. There is no way I could do it now.

I can't help but wonder what the English colonists who settled Jamestown, the first successful English settlement in the New World, were thinking. They chose perhaps the hottest, most humid location along the James River to settle in their woolen clothing. When they wanted a colonial capital, the lunatics moved seven miles inland to the center of the Peninsula and built Williamsburg on a spot that runs 5-10' hotter!

Bob

[The Watchman]

I heard stories from the pre-AC days of hot summer nights in the 1950s when people would take their families and blankets to sleep in the local parks, here in Kansas City. Nowadays, the homeless have already grabbed the best spots.

[TheGITM]

The Farmer's Almanac released their US forecast for 2023 and where I am in the Midwest (Kansas City area) they are predicting glacier-like weather conditions. They are saying we could go to -40 (which is the same whether F or C).

No. Just no. They are also advising to stock up on snow shovels and to have snow blowers serviced. There are also concerns about energy availability if there is record demand for heating during what could be record cold spells.

I might just have to move soon.

[Borderdon]

Obviously of equal concern is water availability in many parts of the UK.
Our family in London keeps us updated regularly, and the temperatures and severe drought is clearly on everyone’s mind.
In my mid-70’s, I no longer look forward to hot weather, but fortunately (maybe !?) we are a very adaptable species, the old parable of the frogs in the pot of water notwithstanding !
Try and stay cool.

[difalkner]

Right now in NW Louisiana we have a rare chance for scattered showers and it's only 92°. Not sure what the humidity is now but earlier this morning the humidity was 91%. The heat index is 102°. Earlier in the week that number hit 115° so this feels like a bit of a break.

[rmp]

Silly

We pretty much lived with the A/Cs running for a few weeks solid.

it was brutal but we had a way out.

I understand that you guys do not have the A/C option in many homes, I don't know how you are making it thru.

Today it's 20+ degrees cooler here (I'm in the Boston Area)

a much awaited relief from the heat

[Murphy Slaw]

I did demolition work in Lake Charles, Louisiana for a living when I was younger. The humidity capital of the World.

I did it because I needed to eat several times a day and had to pay rent.

[jacot23]

Drink lots and lots and lots of water and seek shade whenever possible.

I guess I'm used to it, I've always lived in Middle Tennessee and it's ALWAYS been hot and humid. It's cyclical, this summer hasn't been as hot as 2020 or 2021, but probably hotter than 2019. Summer of 2007 was the hottest here that I can remember reaching 105 for 20 straight days in August. 1989-1993 were very hot too based on vague memories.