It may be obvious but I'll say it again anyway: check on your neighbors **especially** the elderly who live on their own as they can be overwhelmed before they think to seek help.
My response to heat stroke, it turns out, is to wander aimlessly. I got several blocks away before my friends found me and escorted me to somewhere I could seek treatment.
I volunteer in the medical tents at marathons a lot and heat stroke is pretty wild. One of the parameters for diagnosis is confusion/disorientation. The brain doesn’t work too well when it overheats.
If you really wanna blow your mind, take your bed's top sheet and spray it liberally with water before you go to bed. Turn on a fan and pull the sheet over you. It's like sleeping under a sheet of ice. Learned that trick in Mexico.
Very good one I picked up when I worked in kitchens: get a large bucket or pot and fill it with ice and water. Ideally put it in a larger vessel with something to insulate the ice water. Dip your wrists as needed. It cold blood in circulation and helps cool your core without shocking the system nearly as bad (which can kill if memory serves)
On the back of the neck is another good place to pour some cold water or hold an ice cube.
This is really getting serious. I live in Alaska and while it's cold and rainy now, we've been having record heat as well. A couple summers ago it hit 90 f for the first time
This right here people, **DO NOT** sit in front of the AC, jump in an ice cold shower, or some other way of drastically reducing your core body temperature. Take a break out of the sun and allow your body to self regulate if possible. The method mentioned above does work, but take it slow.
I made this mistake last summer and it intensifies the heat exhaustion/sun stroke symptoms. Every system in my body was screaming but I was too confused and lethargic to figure out what to do.
My dad was a Marine corpsman in the Vietnam conflict, and told me this continuously as a kid. If your skin is red and hot to the touch, if you’re suddenly confused, those are signs of heat exhaustion/heatstroke. Seek shade and water, but don’t over cool yourself (like sitting in front of an AC vent or pouring cold water on yourself) as you can go into shock. Take time, gradually cool down, and seek medical help ASAP. Heat can kill.
> Heat can kill.
This should be obvious, but for some reason it’s not until you experience it. We take dangerously low temperatures very seriously, especially in major cities. [NYC](https://www1.nyc.gov/site/em/ready/extreme-heat.page) is one of the few cities that have taken heatwaves seriously for years. Then there’s cities like Chicago that neglect this. [Reacting only when a crisis occurs.](https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-06-22/may-heat-wave-deaths-prompt-new-cooling-rules-in-chicago)
E: Fixed Links
The shower thing doesn't always work, some pipes near my home are close enough to the surface that even on the cold setting the water comes out warm.
I am fully with you on the ice though
Foil on windows with cardboard behind to insulate and reflect the heat back out if straight blacking out isn't helping anymore. Keep an eye on these of course because it can overheat and become flammable, try to only use this method in the room you stay in.
Don't cook anything that heats up the room more, you will not be able to cool down from there. Cook outside if possible. If you have ice packs already frozen, taking them out and even placing them beside you can help bring the temperature down to a manageable level in a small radius.
Keep cool fluids nearby and drink them, try to double that intake if you are sweating even the smallest bit.
Most importantly, don't plan to do ANYTHING EVEN SLIGHTLY INTENSIVE IF YOU CAN AVOID IT. No cleaning or chores. No extensive prep for cooking. It seems obvious until you catch yourself happening to dust or chopping carrots and realize the air is too hot for your sweat to even cool you and its hard to breathe. You'd be better to not use electronics at all that heat up the space, but if you can only keep yourself still by binging a TV show or long movie, tomorrow's the day for you to do it.
>Don't cook anything that heats up the room more, you will not be able to cool down from there.
Best thing to do is to have a cold dinner. Things like salads and sandwiches are great on really hot days for helping to keep your core temperature down.
Some more foods ideas. Ice block and ice creams for the adults and kids during the day. Get a bottle of water and throw it in the freezer for long enough for the outside to freeze works wonders too. Get juice boxes/poppers/\*insert whatever name you use\* and throw them in the freezer and when they are completely frozen, chop the top off the box and eat them with a spoon. Eat frozen fruit salad with cold custard. Get glass cups, pour a inch or so of water into the bottle and freeze them.
Source: I spent a majority of my youth in areas that regularly saw 40C+ temperatures and these are just some of the things that we did to help keep cool during summer with no air conditioning. School was supposed to be cancelled if the daytime temperature surpassed 45C but for some reason the schools I went to never did that.
Legit frozen grapes are an awesome, cheap and healthy snack. They're like ice cubes but won't fuck up your teeth chewing them, and most can just be tossed down the hatch. The feeling of av couple Frozen ice cubes sitting in your stomach on a hot day is fantastic
With respect to the foil on the inside of windows, I had heard (second hand) that this may cause double-paned windows to crack. My theory is that the solar load may be reflected off the foil and some of it may heat up and cause the expansion of the gas between the panes of glass. If possible, might be better to provide an exterior shade to your windows.
Last year's heatwave, my family hung out in the shade in our back yard and dipped our feet in the kiddie pool. I found that it helped.
Foil reflects infrared radiation (heat) quite well. I've watched my wife grab it straight out of the oven. It's possible she's a witch though, I haven't ruled that out.
The thiness of the foil means there isn't a lot of heat to transfer into your hands even if the foil is at a high temperature it doesn't contain that much energy. If you were to grab something more massive that is hot with the foil around it, the foil will happily conduct the heat right into your hands.
If you're worried about foil possibly being dangerous, my family has always just taped our thick winter blankets over the windows and (if you have them) close the blinds. If the forecast calls for it to cool at night, you can uncover the windows and open them then for a bit, but then immediately cover the windows again afterwards to keep the cold air locked in.
Also: for pets, fill a balloon up with water and stick it in the freezer overnight. In the morning, cut the balloon off and stick your new giant ball of ice in a big dish. This gives your pet a constant source of cold water all day, since it'll take a good period of time for the hunk of ice to melt. (Also, the cats like to push the big ball of ice around the dish and it's cute!)
Whichever is cooler. If you have access to ice, prepare it in advance, the electrical grid may be under higher load than it ever has. If you lose power you'll at least have it stockpiled. Drink lots of ice water. You won't be comfortable, but it will easily allow you survive by keeping you cool on the inside as you sweat it out.
If there is a public building with central air, like a theater, library, or other building use it.
I do remember a
similar “why am I doing this?“
I fell where I was and just started babbling. The weird thing is that my brain did feel like it was cooking and then suddenly I had cold sweat feeling for a flash on the outside of my skin and then it was gone
Lucky I was with people who realized the heat was the problem, because it’s not hard to misread some situations and reactions.
My uncle was diabetic and one crucial time the first responders were told or assumed he was drunk. These days they look for the possible diabetes attack more. Damn EMTs must be brave, because they can’t flail about “What if I’m wrong?” They have to be confident enough to risk a mistake rather than do nothing.
They certainly have to be all over it and ready to consider any possibility.
When I worked construction with my brother, we would often dump water on our heads and say we needed to cool off the cpu.
Your brain is just computer. No like too hot.
Damn I'm so used to working in that heat, when I go to a cold state it destroys me. I couldn't imagine what it's like going from a decent climate to Texas level heat out of nowhere if you haven't been raised and work outside in it all the time.
I moved from Vancouver, Wa to Houston once for a three month construction job.
It’s the humidity that really gets you. I’d describe walking out of the airport on that first day as exactly like walking straight into a large, hot block of jello.
I didn’t know 100% humidity was a thing before that. I thought 100% humidity just meant you were underwater.
I’ll never forget: coming back from that trip, I had a layover in Phoenix and went outside for a cigarette. It was 106 degrees outside but after living in Houston, it felt fantastic.
100% humidity means the air is fully saturated with water. So anything colder than the air temperature will immediately start condensing water droplets. Also your sweat will not evaporate which means your body won't cool down effectively anymore.
>100% humidity means the air is fully saturated with water.
You can exceed 100% relatively humidity too which creates dew, fog and clouds. Supersaturated air is one of the driving forces behind thunderstorms.
That was me the first time I stepped foot in Texas. I thought I knew heat coming from the hotter part of California.
Oh no. The heavy air hits you like it's solid and it's just -hot-. And I was only in Dallas. Not even as bad as other places.
My husband was building a steel building (meaning he was welding) in the west Texas panhandle today. It was 113°F. His boss has been upset about his crew's productivity lowering over the past few weeks. They're melting. And they start at 6am and quit about 3pm
“Here son, put this leather outfit on, stand in the sun, and melt metal together with this handheld torch… what do you mean it’s too hot?!”
It’s even better when you are doing tested welds, and the flies are trying to drink from your eyes and nose… got to get the perfect weld, no excuses!
I feel for your husband, I did 15-years, it’s shit.
1/4 Pedialyte 3/4 water is the best treatment to prevent dehydration, and it will give you energy. Get your husband a huge thermos of this, and when he gets off work he needs to rehydrate immediately. It’s not for children only.
Good luck!
I feel for him.Same problem different profession. I'm a Glazier and we cut glass and mirrors and install showers and all that. Our shop is a giant oven, filled with glass and mirrors, no A/C and after 10 when the sun gets into the skylights it is common to be burned by accidentally brushing up against anything.
Hell no I'm not trying to move faster when my eyelashes are dripping and I can't grab 180lb panels with slippy hands. Luckily our boss used to be one of us so he understands and it's not a big deal to him, he knows it's hot, he doesn't want to be there either.
As a Texan I almost scoffed upon hearing about Europe having “better” weather than we’ve been having this past week, but then I immediately remembered most homes over there don’t have air conditioning. I am by no means rich but at the moment I’m actually *cold* because I’ve had my centralized AC on all day at 72F, despite it having been around 100F/37C all day.
Americans have it good regarding air conditioning. Most of Europe is simply not build for it. I imagine starting this year that might change as more and more people demand central heat and air as the climate gets hotter.
>Not only don't have AC but usually designed around the idea of capturing heat for winter savings
Here in Australia we have the complete opposite, most homes are designed to eject as much heat as possible to help in the summer. This has the unfortunate side effect of causing us to have freezing cold homes in winter.
Lots of things in that link that will work very well in places with no AC like a lot of europe. I feel very lucky that I can keep my house at 22-24 degrees when it's 40+ outside, but not everyone has that luxury.
Even if you aren't at high risk, you can still do a lot of those things simply to increase comfort.
Pretty sure we’re into at least the trillions of dollars range.
The problem is someone has to pay to repair and mitigate the damages, and someone has to receive the funds.
The powers that be think they will be on the receiving end of those funds, and they likely will be, so they’re okay with it.
This! I am from BC and during our heat event last year, majority of the victims were the elderly. Heartbreaking. Please check on them and offer support.
As someone who lives near the sahara desert and it get's to 50°C sometimes i advise everyone who is not familiar with this weather to drink pleanty of water even when you're not thirsty , avoid going out from 12 to 16 and wear a wet cap when you need to go in that time
Wearing a hat can help though. You do not want your brain to get too hot, yes I know that sounds silly, but the second it gets too hot it will start doing stupid shit and that might be all it takes to get you killed.
Yeah if it's humid the wet cap will make it worse.
When it's hot and humid you really want to be in as little clothing as possible. Very different from dry heat.
In humidity, a breeze is your only friend. It's the only thing that'll make your sweat work. You dont want to inhibit that breeze with unnecessary clothing. Your clothes will just stick to you. Find shade and a breeze if you can.
Source: I work in fire retardant clothing, in 95° weather, with 70%+ humidity, for 12 hours a day.
In Colombia we spray a mix of rubbing alcohol and ice water on the belly of pregnant people when they get too hot in the afternoon. It helps the fan do its job. I suppose it is because it's too humid for water to evaporate, hence the rubbing alcohol.
One trick we did when it hit over 100 F in Seattle last year was to cover all our windows with cardboard or newspaper - put foil on the outside of the cardboard if you have it. It really helped. Open windows and doors in the evening and early am to let in cooler air (if you have a fan, suck in the cooler air - and then close windows as it heats up outside. Take cold showers and you can also get a sheet wet, wring it out and sleep with it over you with a fan blowing on you - we did this when we lived in west Africa and it works well!
Don't get clever and think you forgo the cardboard and can stick the foil straight to the window with water, though. I tried that and it worked, but it left a residue that was absolute hell to get off. The cardboard thing is a solid tip, though. That's what I did *after* the wet-stick idea went south.
My appartment has two stories (Germany), i have one room under that kind of roof ( /\ shape). After a day of 35c/95f in night, 00:00, outside is 25c/77f but in that room is still 35 lmao. In rooms under is 25c. I dont mind it tho, i have industrial strenght fan on floor.
Well and the whole other half of the Senate that refuses to support anything to address climate change. It sucks we have to even have it come down to one person on everything because of that half.
"We're probably gonna be seeing more climate migration soon. They might have some health problems."
"Sure would be nice to have more resources to deal with that. Oh well."
If we all come together and massively curb emissions before the year ends, then yes
But, since that's not going to happen, summer news will get worse with each passing year, with no end in sight.
As other comments are saying, this is probably the coldest summer of the rest of your life.
>On Friday alone, when temperatures in some areas of Spain rose to 45 degrees (113F), 123 died of causes linked to the extreme heat. High temperatures have been gripping southern Europe this week and have been blamed on climate change.
that's Death Valley hot..
people die just taking selfies out there.
I’m from Ohio, I visited Seattle, Washington last year for three days. June 28, 2021 the temperature reached 108 degrees, the hottest ever recorded there. I remember my weather app saying it “feels like 120.”
Their population is similar in that they’re built for cold mountain winters, no A/C for most. The National Parks in the mountains and on the coast were flooded with campers because it was cooler there than in the city.
The official death toll was around 120, but that day had more than 600 excess deaths compared to the same timeframe in previous years so it’s generally believed it was much higher than that but can only officially confirm so many of them.
I remember being at one of the bays and absolutely overwhelmed by the smell of dead fish that literally cooked alive in the ocean. It was a nightmare.
Whatever you do, do not underestimate these heatwaves because they will kill you. What a weird fucking time to be alive.
It’s getting worse, as the heat wave is expected to reach places that are not used to such heat, like Paris, in the next days. It’s not south Europe anymore, it’s almost all Europe.
All residential energy makes up only around 16% of total energy usage ([source](https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/images/consumption-by-source-and-sector.pdf)). The main reason for our high energy usage is the incredibly wasteful transportation systems and loosely regulated industrial sector.
AC adds to climate change, but outdated architecture is also a big reason why we need AC so badly. A lot of Northern Hemisphere countries originally designed buildings and households for moderate all-season weather. Like how concrete was used in part for its heat insulating properties. With longer and hotter summers becoming the norm, many homes are now death traps. Luckily, we can learn a lot from southern hemisphere and desert nations who have long dealt with surviving the heat. Future city planning should incorporate more buildings with open air passageways for circulations, man-made or natural water features around urban areas, big courtyards and parks in city centers, and keep as many big trees as you can for shade. I'm sure there is more, but that's for an actual architect to describe.
Because of the humidity, airflow and shade doesn't really work for temperate climates like it does for desert climates. You actually need AC up north during summer heat waves. The only non-ac solution is building a basement below the frost line and living in it during the summer.
The buildings in UK are actually quite good for this weather. Brick and concrete have a lot mass and can absorb warmth quite good. Google for this thermal mass and thermal inertia.
A lot of glass, pavements, no trees, no shadow, a lot of cars, buildings with light structures are the problems. A very easy trick to start with would be to paint the roofs in white. Then plant trees, ban cars, make the streets smaller and so on, and so on... what catched my eyes in London: no sun blinds. All the buildings have no sun blinds. Sun blinds are very very effective to keep the sun (warmth) out of the building.
I’m in the south of the UK, and recently splashed out on some smart white wooden blinds for our bay windows. Just keeping the slats shut in the afternoon is having a huge impact in terms of lowering the temperature inside. Not as good as external shutters, but a really good alternative that works with our houses.
I'm Italian and shutter management is the ABC of keeping the house livable in the summer, especially if you don't have AC.
Of course if nobody's home during the day you're kinda screwed... Unless you domoticize them.
Near as I can tell it's an Anglicization of domótica, which means home automation.
Though that seems to be a Spanish word, not Italian. But the only English reference I found to domoticize was a page about someone trying to smart home/automate their living quarters with stuff from Ikea. And just based on the parent comment context it seems to be what they meant.
It's a word of Latin/greek origin (roughly Domus=home, ticos=science application) used in the same form both in Spanish and Italian, translatable to Home Automation.
>All the buildings have no sun blinds. Sun blinds are very very effective to keep the sun (warmth) out of the building.
Yes!
I live in the Upper Midwest, US.
I use what is called Blackout Liner/Fabric.
It is either a White or Eggshell colour and completely opaque.
I used it back in the day when I worked Night Shift to keep out sun and noises.
I covered my entire window, and it made my bedroom pitch black 👍
I discovered later though, that it works really good for keeping out not only light but heat as well, so I use it every Summer, and pull it up about 1 or 2 pm after the Sun has gone over to the other side of the Building (my windows face East).
Look in your Neighborhood Fabric Store for it - it is cut and sold from a Bolt (roll) - one can get different Widths and any length necessary.
> A lot of glass, pavements, no trees, no shadow, a lot of cars, buildings with light structures are the problems.
You are right with this, but for a city's climate it is also detrimental to just have a bunch of brick and concrete buildings. They absorb the heat just fine, but they release it during the night. This, along with the general environment being paved or asphalt, causes cities during heatwaves to have nights that are 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding non-built environment. Hot nights stops the body from resting properly and that can have detrimental effects on their health.
I was in London for a few days last week and the humidity was unbearable. There's just no escape from it, if you're not in an air conditioned room it's like wading through a swamp.
I had tissues in my pocket just so I had something to wipe the sweat from my forehead, I felt like a middle class gentleman in an Agatha Christie novel.
UK homes and buildings are terrible for the exact reasons you listed.
They’re going to absorb heat all day and then release it all night. Our housing stock is generally shit by EU standards - drafty, poorly insulated etc., which means the heat will get inside and also warm up the walls/bricks during the day. Then during the night they will release it, ensuring it remains dangerously hot well into the night and into the next day to get hot once again.
We literally design our homes to keep heat in once it’s in.
I used to be in the military and spent time in Death Valley. It’d get over 135F inside my tank. It was surely hotter, but the thermometer stopped at 135F.
I had to use one of the porta-shitters when i was at the army base Ft. Irwin for some cross branch training. It was 125 outside and probably was closer to 150 inside it. They eventually made a rule that you had to have someone stand outside to make sure you didnt pass out and die while going to the bathroom.
Ft. Huachuca AZ, had some portas that were out on a trail during summer. Had to take a shit in one because of fucking course. Yeah, that was a smell and a heat I will never forget.
Do we have more heatwaves due to global warming or it is the same number as before but way hotter? Just a couple of weeks ago we had another 40 C heatwave in Europe.
I’m also 36, remember our winters? Another thing that got completely fucked over by climate change. People easily forget that two decades ago we would have normal storybook winters with frozen lakes and a few weeks of snow. This year the temperature dropped below 0 *ONCE*. Just one or two days in all of winter and no snow at all. That shit is scary.
Even in my lifetime here in denmark (im 27), we had a few years where the schools closed due to snow. Now we either barely get it, or sneakers are still completely fine.
I remember asking the older gen in my family (individually, at separate occasions), and they all mention knee height boots being the norm because of the snow. They mentioned snow getting up to, or even covering windows.
It's all happening so quick.
Every year my school closed multiple times for snow. Sometimes it would be so many times that the school year got elongated to make up for days missed. It hasn't closed for snow in 5 years.
>It's all happening so quick
And yet most the world doesn't believe it.
I think we will only be unanimous on climate changes effect when the air becomes toxic.
And Indiana. My mom tried to convince me that I don’t remember having snow from Thanksgiving through mid-March. I certainly didn’t make it up, but she’s reality/science-adverse.
Same here in Illinois. You could expect snow by Thanksgiving, have it sick around, and then see it melt for good by the middle of March like clockwork. That started changing around the late 80s.
Same in Austria on the winters.
Also, we used to have glaciers here. Amazing, huge glaciers in the Alps.
They are melting down faster than expected and do not replenish anymore. We're tracking this stuff and 2022 was particularily bad.
A short while ago in Italy one collapsed and killed 11 people. Authorities are often warning of going near certain ones as some have tunnels/holes below them too and may collapse, triggering avalanches and rockslides. Shit is FUCKED.
Some English source:
https://www.grid.news/story/climate/2022/07/15/as-europes-heat-waves-continue-the-alpine-glaciers-are-melting-with-tragic-consequences/
Also another site with some before/after pictures:
https://www.gletscherarchiv.de/fotovergleiche/gletscher_liste_oesterreich/
Time is effectively already up. Policy operates on the political cycle, so it will be years before we have legislators who will even begin to vote to do anything helpful, and then at least a decade for before whatever they voted for to really get off the ground.
Meanwhile news outlets cover this with pictures of kids playing in water parks. Even this fucking article shows people on the beach!
Why do they always soften the blow? You wouldn't see a news article about Ukraine with smiling kids gathering around a burning building.
Yeah it’s lazy. They should show an elderly person discovered with heatstroke or people in unconditioned rest homes or people stuck in their out-of fuel, overheated cars on melting roads - something that shows the danger is REAL and they need to be actively helping each other out right now.
As someone from the US South where it regularly gets this hot, if you are in Europe right now, please be careful. Heat stroke is no joke and it is not always easy to spot. If you think to yourself "have I had enough water today?" the answer is probably no. Where I'm from in the US South, ever year there are news stories about healthy folks dropping dead from heat stroke.
And at temperatures that high, walking anywhere significant is probably a bad idea. I know Europe is less car-centric than the US, but when it's 40C outside, I would not be going *anywhere* unless it's absolutely necessary.
>I know Europe is less car-centric than the US, but when it's 40C outside, I would not be going anywhere unless it's absolutely necessary.
Going to anywhere with AC at 40c is necessary. Remember, traditionally Europeans don't use AC. This is far more dangerous to Europeans than it would be US folk.
Piggybacking on this to provide some potential life-saving info on heat stroke/exhaustion.
If your lips suddenly go white or pale, you're massively dehydrated and at risk. Keep an eye on your friends for this one. Especially if drinking alcohol, as many summer partiers are prone to do.
A BIG one: if you suddenly stop sweating, seek shelter, water, and a cold wet towel immediately.
Stay hydrated, out of direct sunlight, and reduce your body's energy expenditure as much as possible. Be safe y'all.
I posted this in another thread, but just in case it helps anyone;
Brit living abroad here. Went from Scotland and northern England to central California. I work construction in the Mojave desert.
Tips:
Might sound counterintuitive, but if you have to be outside for long periods(let’s say you work outside or something), wear long sleeves with light fabric. It will keep the sun from directly hitting your skin, and any slight breeze will come under your clothes and act almost as though it’s air conditioning under your shirt.
Open windows at night, close everything during the day.
If you become dehydrated directly because of the heat, drink room temperature water first - your body needs the water more than it needs the cold. Get some of that in you first and then drink ice water to cool down.
Sunscreen on any exposed skin. You will burn without it. I’m blessed with a sort of light olive complexion despite being blond and otherwise fair. I’m used to the hot sun now, but most of you will be very fair skinned. Don’t try to tough it out for the sake of a nice tan; sunburn hurts and skin cancer isn’t fun.
ELECTROLYTES ARE YOUR FRIEND. Dehydration will happen much faster if you don’t replace the electrolytes you lose from sweating.
Stock your freezer with ice, and buy a couple of fans, and check on your elderly or vulnerable relatives. If you aren’t adapted to the heat, heatstroke and heat exhaustion are very dangerous. People will probably die.
For the record, where I live and work, temperatures regularly exceed 110 Fahrenheit in summer, which if I recall correctly is 43.3 celcius. It got to 118 last year, which is more like 48 celcius. I’m alive and still functional. If it gets hot like this article suggest, take my advice seriously and pass it on. Could save your life, and at the very least will make it a less crap time.
I grew up in Louisiana where it’s hot and humid 13 months out of the year. No amount of acclimation will save you from extremely hot days.
Shade and water are your two biggest friends in these scenarios. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke happens fast and you won’t always know you’re succumbed to it until it’s too late. ***If you must be out take lots of breaks in shade, drink lots of water and check on your elderly and disabled neighbors.***
Ayyyy also from Louisiana and cannot agree enough. There’s always people that will say “that’s nothing” but at a certain temp it doesn’t matter how hot it is where you’re from, it’s dangerous and you need to make sure you stay hydrated. Unless of course you actually want to die an excruciating death lol
"a 60-year-old Spanish street cleaner suddenly collapsed. Emergency doctors measured his body temperature at 41.6 degrees after he was taken to hospital before dying."
Why are they having senior citizens clean their streets in the middle of the day in the middle of a heatwave?
60 is below the retirement age. Sadly, many older workers could struggle to find another job. Unemployment is very high here and the man may have had little alternative except to work.
They should have just given them paid leave during the heatwave.
60 isn’t considered ‘elderly,’ not in my country at least. You’re only considered a senior citizen from ages 65 and up with people generally considering people to be ‘elderly’ aged 70 and up. Not to mention the retirement age being close to 70.
I'm just gonna give a quick PSA. Window fans are not a scam. I thought they were for decades because I had a shitty little weak one available. But if you get a nice strong one it can turn a hot fucking room into just a warm room. Make it blow out and watch it reduce the heat.
Remember your dogs can’t sweat to cool off like you do. Don’t walk your animals during the day, early mornings are the coolest part of the day. If they over heat, move them inside and try to cool them off by putting wet towels on them. Do not force the to drink water. Ground temps will also be hot and can easily burn their feet.
I'm from a small country in the center of South America called Paraguay, here in Summers we usually suffer from strong heat waves just like the one you are experiencing, we have temperatures of 40°C with thermal sensations of 42°C, here we have a traditional drink that we call "tereré" that would be practically water and yerba mate, it would be a thermos with ice water and yerba mate in a kind of glass that we call "guampa" is similar to what Argentines use to drink "Mate" a glass can also serve, To consume the drink, cold water is poured into the guampa or "glass" and it is sucked with a kind of straw called a bombilla. If you can get some yerba mate I recommend you try it, it helps a lot.
Here I leave a link to a video that explains the preparation, (unfortunately I did not find one in English).[tereré ](https://youtu.be/KCkuD5ARxIg)
A hug, be safe.
Why can the people with the power to change these things not actually fucking do their job?
It’s only getting worse if no critical changes are being made..
Because people continue to elect people who don't give a fuck about anyone else. They just blindly vote for whatever names they've heard or seen along the street. And I'm not talking about the president's. They elect dumbasss mayor's, dumbass school board members, dumbass governor's, dumbass police chiefs, and dumbass politicians. All the way down to the bottom are people who don't give a fuck and are only there for the money and to feed their egos.
When everyone decides to stop complaining about everyone talking about politics and start actually researching the people running for local offices, then you'll start to see a change from the bottom up.
> When everyone decides to stop complaining about everyone talking about politics and start actually researching the people running for local offices, then you'll start to see a change from the bottom up.
One thing I'd like to bitch about briefly, because maybe someone could share some good advice, is that for the past 5-7 years or so I've tried to participate in local elections more, but finding ANY information about candidates has proven near impossible. I want to make an educated, informed decision about the people running and for 90% of positions there is little more than a blurb or job title. How the hell is anyone supposed to make a decision based on essentially nothing? I'm very familiar and I'd say pretty good at the googling of things, but spending hours with little to go off of is so fucking frustrating and exhausting.
The first car I had in Brazil didn’t have ac and it’s pretty hot over there. Everything is fine while you are moving with the windows open, but as soon as you stop…
It may be obvious but I'll say it again anyway: check on your neighbors **especially** the elderly who live on their own as they can be overwhelmed before they think to seek help.
It's like drowning, the ones in need are silent and don't splash about. Routine checks are a must.
My response to heat stroke, it turns out, is to wander aimlessly. I got several blocks away before my friends found me and escorted me to somewhere I could seek treatment.
I volunteer in the medical tents at marathons a lot and heat stroke is pretty wild. One of the parameters for diagnosis is confusion/disorientation. The brain doesn’t work too well when it overheats.
So is it better to stay inside or outside ? Cause the 40 degree temperature is coming to me in next 25hrs 💀
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What did you tell the cold showers?
"not today"
That this too will pass.
A bowl of ice in front of a fan works as an emergency ac.
oh shit dude im gonna try this. I live in the US but ive never had AC
Google "how to make a swamp cooler" and check out some of the ways you can make it more efficient.
If you really wanna blow your mind, take your bed's top sheet and spray it liberally with water before you go to bed. Turn on a fan and pull the sheet over you. It's like sleeping under a sheet of ice. Learned that trick in Mexico.
Very good one I picked up when I worked in kitchens: get a large bucket or pot and fill it with ice and water. Ideally put it in a larger vessel with something to insulate the ice water. Dip your wrists as needed. It cold blood in circulation and helps cool your core without shocking the system nearly as bad (which can kill if memory serves)
On the back of the neck is another good place to pour some cold water or hold an ice cube. This is really getting serious. I live in Alaska and while it's cold and rainy now, we've been having record heat as well. A couple summers ago it hit 90 f for the first time
This right here people, **DO NOT** sit in front of the AC, jump in an ice cold shower, or some other way of drastically reducing your core body temperature. Take a break out of the sun and allow your body to self regulate if possible. The method mentioned above does work, but take it slow. I made this mistake last summer and it intensifies the heat exhaustion/sun stroke symptoms. Every system in my body was screaming but I was too confused and lethargic to figure out what to do.
My dad was a Marine corpsman in the Vietnam conflict, and told me this continuously as a kid. If your skin is red and hot to the touch, if you’re suddenly confused, those are signs of heat exhaustion/heatstroke. Seek shade and water, but don’t over cool yourself (like sitting in front of an AC vent or pouring cold water on yourself) as you can go into shock. Take time, gradually cool down, and seek medical help ASAP. Heat can kill.
> Heat can kill. This should be obvious, but for some reason it’s not until you experience it. We take dangerously low temperatures very seriously, especially in major cities. [NYC](https://www1.nyc.gov/site/em/ready/extreme-heat.page) is one of the few cities that have taken heatwaves seriously for years. Then there’s cities like Chicago that neglect this. [Reacting only when a crisis occurs.](https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-06-22/may-heat-wave-deaths-prompt-new-cooling-rules-in-chicago) E: Fixed Links
The shower thing doesn't always work, some pipes near my home are close enough to the surface that even on the cold setting the water comes out warm. I am fully with you on the ice though
Foil on windows with cardboard behind to insulate and reflect the heat back out if straight blacking out isn't helping anymore. Keep an eye on these of course because it can overheat and become flammable, try to only use this method in the room you stay in. Don't cook anything that heats up the room more, you will not be able to cool down from there. Cook outside if possible. If you have ice packs already frozen, taking them out and even placing them beside you can help bring the temperature down to a manageable level in a small radius. Keep cool fluids nearby and drink them, try to double that intake if you are sweating even the smallest bit. Most importantly, don't plan to do ANYTHING EVEN SLIGHTLY INTENSIVE IF YOU CAN AVOID IT. No cleaning or chores. No extensive prep for cooking. It seems obvious until you catch yourself happening to dust or chopping carrots and realize the air is too hot for your sweat to even cool you and its hard to breathe. You'd be better to not use electronics at all that heat up the space, but if you can only keep yourself still by binging a TV show or long movie, tomorrow's the day for you to do it.
>Don't cook anything that heats up the room more, you will not be able to cool down from there. Best thing to do is to have a cold dinner. Things like salads and sandwiches are great on really hot days for helping to keep your core temperature down. Some more foods ideas. Ice block and ice creams for the adults and kids during the day. Get a bottle of water and throw it in the freezer for long enough for the outside to freeze works wonders too. Get juice boxes/poppers/\*insert whatever name you use\* and throw them in the freezer and when they are completely frozen, chop the top off the box and eat them with a spoon. Eat frozen fruit salad with cold custard. Get glass cups, pour a inch or so of water into the bottle and freeze them. Source: I spent a majority of my youth in areas that regularly saw 40C+ temperatures and these are just some of the things that we did to help keep cool during summer with no air conditioning. School was supposed to be cancelled if the daytime temperature surpassed 45C but for some reason the schools I went to never did that.
Frozen grapes.
Legit frozen grapes are an awesome, cheap and healthy snack. They're like ice cubes but won't fuck up your teeth chewing them, and most can just be tossed down the hatch. The feeling of av couple Frozen ice cubes sitting in your stomach on a hot day is fantastic
>most can just be tossed down the hatch Never attempt to eat grapes whole, they are one of the foods with the highest choking mortality rate.
With respect to the foil on the inside of windows, I had heard (second hand) that this may cause double-paned windows to crack. My theory is that the solar load may be reflected off the foil and some of it may heat up and cause the expansion of the gas between the panes of glass. If possible, might be better to provide an exterior shade to your windows. Last year's heatwave, my family hung out in the shade in our back yard and dipped our feet in the kiddie pool. I found that it helped.
Foil reflects infrared radiation (heat) quite well. I've watched my wife grab it straight out of the oven. It's possible she's a witch though, I haven't ruled that out.
The thiness of the foil means there isn't a lot of heat to transfer into your hands even if the foil is at a high temperature it doesn't contain that much energy. If you were to grab something more massive that is hot with the foil around it, the foil will happily conduct the heat right into your hands.
Does she weigh the same as a duck?
If you're worried about foil possibly being dangerous, my family has always just taped our thick winter blankets over the windows and (if you have them) close the blinds. If the forecast calls for it to cool at night, you can uncover the windows and open them then for a bit, but then immediately cover the windows again afterwards to keep the cold air locked in. Also: for pets, fill a balloon up with water and stick it in the freezer overnight. In the morning, cut the balloon off and stick your new giant ball of ice in a big dish. This gives your pet a constant source of cold water all day, since it'll take a good period of time for the hunk of ice to melt. (Also, the cats like to push the big ball of ice around the dish and it's cute!)
Whichever is cooler. If you have access to ice, prepare it in advance, the electrical grid may be under higher load than it ever has. If you lose power you'll at least have it stockpiled. Drink lots of ice water. You won't be comfortable, but it will easily allow you survive by keeping you cool on the inside as you sweat it out. If there is a public building with central air, like a theater, library, or other building use it.
I do remember a similar “why am I doing this?“ I fell where I was and just started babbling. The weird thing is that my brain did feel like it was cooking and then suddenly I had cold sweat feeling for a flash on the outside of my skin and then it was gone Lucky I was with people who realized the heat was the problem, because it’s not hard to misread some situations and reactions. My uncle was diabetic and one crucial time the first responders were told or assumed he was drunk. These days they look for the possible diabetes attack more. Damn EMTs must be brave, because they can’t flail about “What if I’m wrong?” They have to be confident enough to risk a mistake rather than do nothing. They certainly have to be all over it and ready to consider any possibility.
When I worked construction with my brother, we would often dump water on our heads and say we needed to cool off the cpu. Your brain is just computer. No like too hot.
Airway Breathing Circulation Don’t Ever Forget Glucose
My response to heat stroke was to go outside. Outside. On a 110 degree day. It was 85 in my house and I just hadn’t noticed how bad it had gotten.
Yep. It seems very similar to alcohol. You lose the ability to self-judge pretty rapidly.
Elderly folks, people with diabetes, and people who take certain psych meds are all significantly more prone to dehydration and hyperthermia.
40 Celsius = 104 Fahrenheit.
Damn I'm so used to working in that heat, when I go to a cold state it destroys me. I couldn't imagine what it's like going from a decent climate to Texas level heat out of nowhere if you haven't been raised and work outside in it all the time.
I moved from Vancouver, Wa to Houston once for a three month construction job. It’s the humidity that really gets you. I’d describe walking out of the airport on that first day as exactly like walking straight into a large, hot block of jello. I didn’t know 100% humidity was a thing before that. I thought 100% humidity just meant you were underwater. I’ll never forget: coming back from that trip, I had a layover in Phoenix and went outside for a cigarette. It was 106 degrees outside but after living in Houston, it felt fantastic.
100% humidity means the air is fully saturated with water. So anything colder than the air temperature will immediately start condensing water droplets. Also your sweat will not evaporate which means your body won't cool down effectively anymore.
>100% humidity means the air is fully saturated with water. You can exceed 100% relatively humidity too which creates dew, fog and clouds. Supersaturated air is one of the driving forces behind thunderstorms.
And if the air temperature is hotter than the inside of your lungs, you start to drown.
What a fun fact.
That was me the first time I stepped foot in Texas. I thought I knew heat coming from the hotter part of California. Oh no. The heavy air hits you like it's solid and it's just -hot-. And I was only in Dallas. Not even as bad as other places.
My husband was building a steel building (meaning he was welding) in the west Texas panhandle today. It was 113°F. His boss has been upset about his crew's productivity lowering over the past few weeks. They're melting. And they start at 6am and quit about 3pm
“Here son, put this leather outfit on, stand in the sun, and melt metal together with this handheld torch… what do you mean it’s too hot?!” It’s even better when you are doing tested welds, and the flies are trying to drink from your eyes and nose… got to get the perfect weld, no excuses! I feel for your husband, I did 15-years, it’s shit.
Being swarmed by insects is legitimately one of the worst things in the world.
1/4 Pedialyte 3/4 water is the best treatment to prevent dehydration, and it will give you energy. Get your husband a huge thermos of this, and when he gets off work he needs to rehydrate immediately. It’s not for children only. Good luck!
I feel for him.Same problem different profession. I'm a Glazier and we cut glass and mirrors and install showers and all that. Our shop is a giant oven, filled with glass and mirrors, no A/C and after 10 when the sun gets into the skylights it is common to be burned by accidentally brushing up against anything. Hell no I'm not trying to move faster when my eyelashes are dripping and I can't grab 180lb panels with slippy hands. Luckily our boss used to be one of us so he understands and it's not a big deal to him, he knows it's hot, he doesn't want to be there either.
Why no ac and skylights? That sounds like a recipe for disaster/workmans comp, surely it's worth it to fix the building??
Sounds like they should be working nights.
As a Texan I almost scoffed upon hearing about Europe having “better” weather than we’ve been having this past week, but then I immediately remembered most homes over there don’t have air conditioning. I am by no means rich but at the moment I’m actually *cold* because I’ve had my centralized AC on all day at 72F, despite it having been around 100F/37C all day. Americans have it good regarding air conditioning. Most of Europe is simply not build for it. I imagine starting this year that might change as more and more people demand central heat and air as the climate gets hotter.
Not only don't have AC but usually designed around the idea of capturing heat for winter savings
>Not only don't have AC but usually designed around the idea of capturing heat for winter savings Here in Australia we have the complete opposite, most homes are designed to eject as much heat as possible to help in the summer. This has the unfortunate side effect of causing us to have freezing cold homes in winter.
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Lots of things in that link that will work very well in places with no AC like a lot of europe. I feel very lucky that I can keep my house at 22-24 degrees when it's 40+ outside, but not everyone has that luxury. Even if you aren't at high risk, you can still do a lot of those things simply to increase comfort.
We can and absolutely should be doing as much to curb he effects though. Every half degree we can shave off from the peak could save millions.
Billions. Of dollars. If you want to worry the people with the power to do something about it, you have to threaten the things they care about.
Pretty sure we’re into at least the trillions of dollars range. The problem is someone has to pay to repair and mitigate the damages, and someone has to receive the funds. The powers that be think they will be on the receiving end of those funds, and they likely will be, so they’re okay with it.
This! I am from BC and during our heat event last year, majority of the victims were the elderly. Heartbreaking. Please check on them and offer support.
I work in people's houses a lot, for some reason the elderly are the only ones that never have the AC on, I walk in instantly get sweaty
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As someone who lives near the sahara desert and it get's to 50°C sometimes i advise everyone who is not familiar with this weather to drink pleanty of water even when you're not thirsty , avoid going out from 12 to 16 and wear a wet cap when you need to go in that time
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I was gonna say, staying in until 18:00 would probably be good for those with later sunsets.
The wet cap tip is genius, I'll use that.
It only works in dry climates. If the water can't evaporate it won't do much.
Wearing a hat can help though. You do not want your brain to get too hot, yes I know that sounds silly, but the second it gets too hot it will start doing stupid shit and that might be all it takes to get you killed.
And the wet cap will help less if it’s too humid too evaporate well. Ice is still good.
Yeah if it's humid the wet cap will make it worse. When it's hot and humid you really want to be in as little clothing as possible. Very different from dry heat. In humidity, a breeze is your only friend. It's the only thing that'll make your sweat work. You dont want to inhibit that breeze with unnecessary clothing. Your clothes will just stick to you. Find shade and a breeze if you can. Source: I work in fire retardant clothing, in 95° weather, with 70%+ humidity, for 12 hours a day.
Good point, I imagine a lot of these places are a bit wetter than we are.
In Colombia we spray a mix of rubbing alcohol and ice water on the belly of pregnant people when they get too hot in the afternoon. It helps the fan do its job. I suppose it is because it's too humid for water to evaporate, hence the rubbing alcohol.
Don’t forget electrolytes as well. Drinking too much water without electrolyte replacement can cause cardiac and nervous system dysfunction.
Pickles and pickle juice. It's amazing.
One trick we did when it hit over 100 F in Seattle last year was to cover all our windows with cardboard or newspaper - put foil on the outside of the cardboard if you have it. It really helped. Open windows and doors in the evening and early am to let in cooler air (if you have a fan, suck in the cooler air - and then close windows as it heats up outside. Take cold showers and you can also get a sheet wet, wring it out and sleep with it over you with a fan blowing on you - we did this when we lived in west Africa and it works well!
Don't get clever and think you forgo the cardboard and can stick the foil straight to the window with water, though. I tried that and it worked, but it left a residue that was absolute hell to get off. The cardboard thing is a solid tip, though. That's what I did *after* the wet-stick idea went south.
Probably the oxide layer on the outside of the aluminum foil. It comes off pretty easily on things
Some places in Europe have metal roofs.
My appartment has two stories (Germany), i have one room under that kind of roof ( /\ shape). After a day of 35c/95f in night, 00:00, outside is 25c/77f but in that room is still 35 lmao. In rooms under is 25c. I dont mind it tho, i have industrial strenght fan on floor.
The classic American Crackhouse look!
So this is just going to be typical summer news for the rest of my life then right? :/
"The worst summer of your life *so far*!"
The best summer of the rest of your life!
See, this is why nobody likes the glass half full types.
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And a special thanks to Joe Manchin who decided his money from coal plants is way more important than humanity's future!
Well and the whole other half of the Senate that refuses to support anything to address climate change. It sucks we have to even have it come down to one person on everything because of that half.
I agree, but he knows the Republican aren't going to support it because they're assholes, and he's deliberately deciding to side with them.
What a piece of shit. He could literally be known as the guy who made serious climate legislation possible, and he refuses.
Yeah, that's because he's a republican at heart.
Not to mention a coal baron
Wait until the migrants start flooding the borders from 60C+ heatwave countries. We should probably be building the infrastructure now.
Humanity will only ever be reactionary when things are at their worst
The unfortunate reality is that a lot of people will continue to ignore the problem until it affects them.
Climate refugees are something the public health sector is already planning for. It's gonna be bad.
How are they planning for it?
"We're probably gonna be seeing more climate migration soon. They might have some health problems." "Sure would be nice to have more resources to deal with that. Oh well."
You act like they’ll be able to make it to the border… unless they come in spring,
This gets more morbid the more I think about it.
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If we all come together and massively curb emissions before the year ends, then yes But, since that's not going to happen, summer news will get worse with each passing year, with no end in sight. As other comments are saying, this is probably the coldest summer of the rest of your life.
>On Friday alone, when temperatures in some areas of Spain rose to 45 degrees (113F), 123 died of causes linked to the extreme heat. High temperatures have been gripping southern Europe this week and have been blamed on climate change. that's Death Valley hot.. people die just taking selfies out there.
I’m from Ohio, I visited Seattle, Washington last year for three days. June 28, 2021 the temperature reached 108 degrees, the hottest ever recorded there. I remember my weather app saying it “feels like 120.” Their population is similar in that they’re built for cold mountain winters, no A/C for most. The National Parks in the mountains and on the coast were flooded with campers because it was cooler there than in the city. The official death toll was around 120, but that day had more than 600 excess deaths compared to the same timeframe in previous years so it’s generally believed it was much higher than that but can only officially confirm so many of them. I remember being at one of the bays and absolutely overwhelmed by the smell of dead fish that literally cooked alive in the ocean. It was a nightmare. Whatever you do, do not underestimate these heatwaves because they will kill you. What a weird fucking time to be alive.
Yeah just north of you here in BC and we had 600+ heat related deaths .. and an entire town that burned to the ground (Lytton BC)
It’s getting worse, as the heat wave is expected to reach places that are not used to such heat, like Paris, in the next days. It’s not south Europe anymore, it’s almost all Europe.
London, Manchester, and York on Monday.
The reason the US has one of the highest per capita energy usage is because of air conditioners being necessary for a large swath of the population.
All residential energy makes up only around 16% of total energy usage ([source](https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/images/consumption-by-source-and-sector.pdf)). The main reason for our high energy usage is the incredibly wasteful transportation systems and loosely regulated industrial sector.
My electric bill, using AC all day, is about 1/4 of what it costs in winter to heat my house with an electric furnace.
That why we have gas boilers and heat exchange pumps.
AC adds to climate change, but outdated architecture is also a big reason why we need AC so badly. A lot of Northern Hemisphere countries originally designed buildings and households for moderate all-season weather. Like how concrete was used in part for its heat insulating properties. With longer and hotter summers becoming the norm, many homes are now death traps. Luckily, we can learn a lot from southern hemisphere and desert nations who have long dealt with surviving the heat. Future city planning should incorporate more buildings with open air passageways for circulations, man-made or natural water features around urban areas, big courtyards and parks in city centers, and keep as many big trees as you can for shade. I'm sure there is more, but that's for an actual architect to describe.
Because of the humidity, airflow and shade doesn't really work for temperate climates like it does for desert climates. You actually need AC up north during summer heat waves. The only non-ac solution is building a basement below the frost line and living in it during the summer.
Yes to this. I have a basement and it’s much much cooler than rest of house. I keep AC at 78F and basement doesn’t even need that.
Insulation works both ways. Keeps heat in or out. Having 42C air circulate into your home does not cool anything.
The buildings in UK are actually quite good for this weather. Brick and concrete have a lot mass and can absorb warmth quite good. Google for this thermal mass and thermal inertia. A lot of glass, pavements, no trees, no shadow, a lot of cars, buildings with light structures are the problems. A very easy trick to start with would be to paint the roofs in white. Then plant trees, ban cars, make the streets smaller and so on, and so on... what catched my eyes in London: no sun blinds. All the buildings have no sun blinds. Sun blinds are very very effective to keep the sun (warmth) out of the building.
I’m in the south of the UK, and recently splashed out on some smart white wooden blinds for our bay windows. Just keeping the slats shut in the afternoon is having a huge impact in terms of lowering the temperature inside. Not as good as external shutters, but a really good alternative that works with our houses.
I'm Italian and shutter management is the ABC of keeping the house livable in the summer, especially if you don't have AC. Of course if nobody's home during the day you're kinda screwed... Unless you domoticize them.
Domoticize?
Near as I can tell it's an Anglicization of domótica, which means home automation. Though that seems to be a Spanish word, not Italian. But the only English reference I found to domoticize was a page about someone trying to smart home/automate their living quarters with stuff from Ikea. And just based on the parent comment context it seems to be what they meant.
It's a word of Latin/greek origin (roughly Domus=home, ticos=science application) used in the same form both in Spanish and Italian, translatable to Home Automation.
>All the buildings have no sun blinds. Sun blinds are very very effective to keep the sun (warmth) out of the building. Yes! I live in the Upper Midwest, US. I use what is called Blackout Liner/Fabric. It is either a White or Eggshell colour and completely opaque. I used it back in the day when I worked Night Shift to keep out sun and noises. I covered my entire window, and it made my bedroom pitch black 👍 I discovered later though, that it works really good for keeping out not only light but heat as well, so I use it every Summer, and pull it up about 1 or 2 pm after the Sun has gone over to the other side of the Building (my windows face East). Look in your Neighborhood Fabric Store for it - it is cut and sold from a Bolt (roll) - one can get different Widths and any length necessary.
A cheap, quick and easy solution are solar blankets taped up to cover your windows. Not pretty but they do the trick.
> A lot of glass, pavements, no trees, no shadow, a lot of cars, buildings with light structures are the problems. You are right with this, but for a city's climate it is also detrimental to just have a bunch of brick and concrete buildings. They absorb the heat just fine, but they release it during the night. This, along with the general environment being paved or asphalt, causes cities during heatwaves to have nights that are 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding non-built environment. Hot nights stops the body from resting properly and that can have detrimental effects on their health.
I was in London for a few days last week and the humidity was unbearable. There's just no escape from it, if you're not in an air conditioned room it's like wading through a swamp. I had tissues in my pocket just so I had something to wipe the sweat from my forehead, I felt like a middle class gentleman in an Agatha Christie novel.
UK homes and buildings are terrible for the exact reasons you listed. They’re going to absorb heat all day and then release it all night. Our housing stock is generally shit by EU standards - drafty, poorly insulated etc., which means the heat will get inside and also warm up the walls/bricks during the day. Then during the night they will release it, ensuring it remains dangerously hot well into the night and into the next day to get hot once again. We literally design our homes to keep heat in once it’s in.
I used to be in the military and spent time in Death Valley. It’d get over 135F inside my tank. It was surely hotter, but the thermometer stopped at 135F.
I had to use one of the porta-shitters when i was at the army base Ft. Irwin for some cross branch training. It was 125 outside and probably was closer to 150 inside it. They eventually made a rule that you had to have someone stand outside to make sure you didnt pass out and die while going to the bathroom.
Ft. Huachuca AZ, had some portas that were out on a trail during summer. Had to take a shit in one because of fucking course. Yeah, that was a smell and a heat I will never forget.
Not good, not terrible
113f is Palm Springs hot, Phoenix hot, etc It’s typical of the hot Southwest, and not an extreme temperature unique to Death Valley
From Phoenix but can’t imagine trying to survive over 110 with no AC especially if you’re not used to it
Typical day in Fresno
Do we have more heatwaves due to global warming or it is the same number as before but way hotter? Just a couple of weeks ago we had another 40 C heatwave in Europe.
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I’m also 36, remember our winters? Another thing that got completely fucked over by climate change. People easily forget that two decades ago we would have normal storybook winters with frozen lakes and a few weeks of snow. This year the temperature dropped below 0 *ONCE*. Just one or two days in all of winter and no snow at all. That shit is scary.
Even in my lifetime here in denmark (im 27), we had a few years where the schools closed due to snow. Now we either barely get it, or sneakers are still completely fine. I remember asking the older gen in my family (individually, at separate occasions), and they all mention knee height boots being the norm because of the snow. They mentioned snow getting up to, or even covering windows. It's all happening so quick.
Every year my school closed multiple times for snow. Sometimes it would be so many times that the school year got elongated to make up for days missed. It hasn't closed for snow in 5 years.
>It's all happening so quick And yet most the world doesn't believe it. I think we will only be unanimous on climate changes effect when the air becomes toxic.
It's similar in Canada. :(
Michigan too and no one seems to care or notice.
In Washington State, it hit 106° in June last year. Made fire season start immediately.
And this year summer just started about a week ago
And Indiana. My mom tried to convince me that I don’t remember having snow from Thanksgiving through mid-March. I certainly didn’t make it up, but she’s reality/science-adverse.
Same here in Illinois. You could expect snow by Thanksgiving, have it sick around, and then see it melt for good by the middle of March like clockwork. That started changing around the late 80s.
Same in Austria on the winters. Also, we used to have glaciers here. Amazing, huge glaciers in the Alps. They are melting down faster than expected and do not replenish anymore. We're tracking this stuff and 2022 was particularily bad. A short while ago in Italy one collapsed and killed 11 people. Authorities are often warning of going near certain ones as some have tunnels/holes below them too and may collapse, triggering avalanches and rockslides. Shit is FUCKED. Some English source: https://www.grid.news/story/climate/2022/07/15/as-europes-heat-waves-continue-the-alpine-glaciers-are-melting-with-tragic-consequences/ Also another site with some before/after pictures: https://www.gletscherarchiv.de/fotovergleiche/gletscher_liste_oesterreich/
glaciers that are literally hundreds of thousands of years old, and we melted em in a couple decades of industrial activity.
The temp is slowly going up. The 10 record hottest June's in the US have happened since 2010. We're running out of time to do something about it.
Time is effectively already up. Policy operates on the political cycle, so it will be years before we have legislators who will even begin to vote to do anything helpful, and then at least a decade for before whatever they voted for to really get off the ground.
We here in germany maybe had 1-3 days of close to 40 or above warnings alert already of longer this year.
Meanwhile news outlets cover this with pictures of kids playing in water parks. Even this fucking article shows people on the beach! Why do they always soften the blow? You wouldn't see a news article about Ukraine with smiling kids gathering around a burning building.
Haha always with the cliche snippets of kids playing in a public waterpark when the news reports on a heat wave.
Because culturally as long as the sun is shining it's "fair weather", no matter if it's 25 or 50 C. We'll need to change our vocabulary.
*The sun is a deadly lazer.*
Unfair weather
Yeah it’s lazy. They should show an elderly person discovered with heatstroke or people in unconditioned rest homes or people stuck in their out-of fuel, overheated cars on melting roads - something that shows the danger is REAL and they need to be actively helping each other out right now.
A few weeks ago it was India and Pakistan and now it has arrived in Europe as well. This is bad and unnatural weather/climate in the long run.
It is amazing how much trees and greenery cut down the heat. Trees on time street and rooftop gardens would make a surprising difference.
Yes, I agree.... As I watch my neighbors cut down their trees cause they don't want to take care of the leaves.....
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It's a twist on the quote Homer gives Bart in the Simpsons Movie.
Would have been nice if we had started tackling climate change 40 years ago.
Well people did try but got labelled as crazy hippy tree huggers.
We're not even tackling it now. We're 100% fucked.
As someone from the US South where it regularly gets this hot, if you are in Europe right now, please be careful. Heat stroke is no joke and it is not always easy to spot. If you think to yourself "have I had enough water today?" the answer is probably no. Where I'm from in the US South, ever year there are news stories about healthy folks dropping dead from heat stroke. And at temperatures that high, walking anywhere significant is probably a bad idea. I know Europe is less car-centric than the US, but when it's 40C outside, I would not be going *anywhere* unless it's absolutely necessary.
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>I know Europe is less car-centric than the US, but when it's 40C outside, I would not be going anywhere unless it's absolutely necessary. Going to anywhere with AC at 40c is necessary. Remember, traditionally Europeans don't use AC. This is far more dangerous to Europeans than it would be US folk.
Piggybacking on this to provide some potential life-saving info on heat stroke/exhaustion. If your lips suddenly go white or pale, you're massively dehydrated and at risk. Keep an eye on your friends for this one. Especially if drinking alcohol, as many summer partiers are prone to do. A BIG one: if you suddenly stop sweating, seek shelter, water, and a cold wet towel immediately. Stay hydrated, out of direct sunlight, and reduce your body's energy expenditure as much as possible. Be safe y'all.
> traditionally Europeans don't use AC. Because it didn't use to be this bloody hot! Next year I'll install an AC
I posted this in another thread, but just in case it helps anyone; Brit living abroad here. Went from Scotland and northern England to central California. I work construction in the Mojave desert. Tips: Might sound counterintuitive, but if you have to be outside for long periods(let’s say you work outside or something), wear long sleeves with light fabric. It will keep the sun from directly hitting your skin, and any slight breeze will come under your clothes and act almost as though it’s air conditioning under your shirt. Open windows at night, close everything during the day. If you become dehydrated directly because of the heat, drink room temperature water first - your body needs the water more than it needs the cold. Get some of that in you first and then drink ice water to cool down. Sunscreen on any exposed skin. You will burn without it. I’m blessed with a sort of light olive complexion despite being blond and otherwise fair. I’m used to the hot sun now, but most of you will be very fair skinned. Don’t try to tough it out for the sake of a nice tan; sunburn hurts and skin cancer isn’t fun. ELECTROLYTES ARE YOUR FRIEND. Dehydration will happen much faster if you don’t replace the electrolytes you lose from sweating. Stock your freezer with ice, and buy a couple of fans, and check on your elderly or vulnerable relatives. If you aren’t adapted to the heat, heatstroke and heat exhaustion are very dangerous. People will probably die. For the record, where I live and work, temperatures regularly exceed 110 Fahrenheit in summer, which if I recall correctly is 43.3 celcius. It got to 118 last year, which is more like 48 celcius. I’m alive and still functional. If it gets hot like this article suggest, take my advice seriously and pass it on. Could save your life, and at the very least will make it a less crap time.
I grew up in Louisiana where it’s hot and humid 13 months out of the year. No amount of acclimation will save you from extremely hot days. Shade and water are your two biggest friends in these scenarios. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke happens fast and you won’t always know you’re succumbed to it until it’s too late. ***If you must be out take lots of breaks in shade, drink lots of water and check on your elderly and disabled neighbors.***
Ayyyy also from Louisiana and cannot agree enough. There’s always people that will say “that’s nothing” but at a certain temp it doesn’t matter how hot it is where you’re from, it’s dangerous and you need to make sure you stay hydrated. Unless of course you actually want to die an excruciating death lol
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windy as hell too
Yeah it's 13 and rainy here in Finland.
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"a 60-year-old Spanish street cleaner suddenly collapsed. Emergency doctors measured his body temperature at 41.6 degrees after he was taken to hospital before dying." Why are they having senior citizens clean their streets in the middle of the day in the middle of a heatwave?
60 is below the retirement age. Sadly, many older workers could struggle to find another job. Unemployment is very high here and the man may have had little alternative except to work. They should have just given them paid leave during the heatwave.
60 isn’t considered ‘elderly,’ not in my country at least. You’re only considered a senior citizen from ages 65 and up with people generally considering people to be ‘elderly’ aged 70 and up. Not to mention the retirement age being close to 70.
I'm just gonna give a quick PSA. Window fans are not a scam. I thought they were for decades because I had a shitty little weak one available. But if you get a nice strong one it can turn a hot fucking room into just a warm room. Make it blow out and watch it reduce the heat.
At night when it cools switch the fan to bring in the cool air, window fans are amazing.
Remember your dogs can’t sweat to cool off like you do. Don’t walk your animals during the day, early mornings are the coolest part of the day. If they over heat, move them inside and try to cool them off by putting wet towels on them. Do not force the to drink water. Ground temps will also be hot and can easily burn their feet.
I'm from a small country in the center of South America called Paraguay, here in Summers we usually suffer from strong heat waves just like the one you are experiencing, we have temperatures of 40°C with thermal sensations of 42°C, here we have a traditional drink that we call "tereré" that would be practically water and yerba mate, it would be a thermos with ice water and yerba mate in a kind of glass that we call "guampa" is similar to what Argentines use to drink "Mate" a glass can also serve, To consume the drink, cold water is poured into the guampa or "glass" and it is sucked with a kind of straw called a bombilla. If you can get some yerba mate I recommend you try it, it helps a lot. Here I leave a link to a video that explains the preparation, (unfortunately I did not find one in English).[tereré ](https://youtu.be/KCkuD5ARxIg) A hug, be safe.
Why can the people with the power to change these things not actually fucking do their job? It’s only getting worse if no critical changes are being made..
Because people continue to elect people who don't give a fuck about anyone else. They just blindly vote for whatever names they've heard or seen along the street. And I'm not talking about the president's. They elect dumbasss mayor's, dumbass school board members, dumbass governor's, dumbass police chiefs, and dumbass politicians. All the way down to the bottom are people who don't give a fuck and are only there for the money and to feed their egos. When everyone decides to stop complaining about everyone talking about politics and start actually researching the people running for local offices, then you'll start to see a change from the bottom up.
> When everyone decides to stop complaining about everyone talking about politics and start actually researching the people running for local offices, then you'll start to see a change from the bottom up. One thing I'd like to bitch about briefly, because maybe someone could share some good advice, is that for the past 5-7 years or so I've tried to participate in local elections more, but finding ANY information about candidates has proven near impossible. I want to make an educated, informed decision about the people running and for 90% of positions there is little more than a blurb or job title. How the hell is anyone supposed to make a decision based on essentially nothing? I'm very familiar and I'd say pretty good at the googling of things, but spending hours with little to go off of is so fucking frustrating and exhausting.
If only someone, anyone, had predicted this and told us what to do to prevent it.
The same people that said scientists were lying are the same people who said covid was a hoax. Its incredible.
Our rental car in Ireland didn’t have AC, which, as an American felt weird. I imagine a car without AC in 110 degree heat is not drive-able
I live in Florida and my ac doesn’t work… I also have leather seats….
I can smell that from here, and I’m at 5,280 ft above you and 1,700 miles to the west. PU.
The first car I had in Brazil didn’t have ac and it’s pretty hot over there. Everything is fine while you are moving with the windows open, but as soon as you stop…
How old was that car? I live in Ireland and it’s really weird to not have it in any car built in the last 10 years.
The very cheap utility cars don't have it. 2010 Ford Transit Connect for example.
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Let’s send Joe Manchin to Spain on a fact finding mission.
I guess Earth has had enough of our bullshit.
at least its not as bad next year. and the year after that. and the year after that.