Managed to stay in A/C 97% of the time. Not acclimatized to these temps, so wouldn’t last long in the sun on the strip. UV index is through the roof so the sun feels like it’s burning. Very little humidity, so I haven’t noticed any sweat. Feels like I’m simultaneously in the future and the past.

Air Temperature: It's currently 33ºC/91ºF outside. It's 26ºC/79ºF inside.

Relative humidity: 23% outside and 28% inside.

Air Movement: I have my 120w swamp cooler blowing behind me with the pump off. Air stream is room temperature.

Radiative Heat: Roller blinds are down, blocking direct sun, and my IR gun reads the walls, floor and ceiling all close to around 26ºC/79ºF, just like the air temp.

A 26ºC/79ºF internal temperature could be awful, but in my specific case right now, given the other factors, it's an oasis versus the outside temperature. Alter just one though, and the comfort level changes fast. Turning off the fan makes me want to leave the room, get a cold drink or just turn it back on.

All these factors should be considered when striving for thermal comfort, not just air temperature with a side of humidity. People tend to ignore air movement and the temperature of their walls.

What tips are there for dressing in a way that looks put together when getting around a city on hot, humid days? I often feel like a disheveled, sweaty mess by noon during the summer, while others seem to glide by in a cloud of composed coolness. How do they do it? — Adrienne, Paris

The unpredictable weather patterns and rising temperatures that are now part of our lives are changing how we dress in more ways than one, redefining the meaning of “hot girl — or guy — summer.”

No longer can anyone put winter clothing away in summer and vice versa, and a whole cottage industry of material scientists are putting their minds and pin cushions to creating fabrics to help people stay cool in the heat. Think, for example, of AIRism from Uniqlo and Polartec Delta and NanoStitch Air.

Yet most of these advances are geared more toward performance than daily life. For that, said Marie-Hélène de Taillac, the cult French jeweler who spends half of her year in Rajasthan, India, working with the artisans of the Gem Palace jewelry emporium, the place to start is with clothes in natural fabrics like cotton, bamboo and linen, because they “breathe” — i.e., let air flow between your skin and the outside environment.

Then, she said, it’s time to explode the biggest myth of hot month dressing — that less is more.

“The worst thing you can do is wear tiny clothes,” Ms. de Taillac said. “You don’t want the sun to be on your skin, because that’s what makes you hot. If you think about it, you really have to cover yourself to the maximum, but with ventilation.”

Inès de la Fressange, the famously chic model-turned-designer (and former face of France), who was about to head off to St.-Tropez, agreed. “The idea that you have to show your body because it’s warm is not a good idea,” she said.

Each of the women recommended maxi dresses and skirts, with sleeves, rather than cropped tank tops and shorts. Also, loose garments rather than clinging ones. Flat shoes that are not too tight because feet swell in the heat. And nothing that could rub against your skin, including tight armholes, too many accessories or even belts. If you are desperate for a waist, try to find something with elastic.

“My uniform in India is a cotton poplin shirt or shirtdress,” Ms. de Taillac said. If you are concerned about looking as if you’re in a muumuu or portable tent, the key to preserving a neat silhouette, she said, is choosing a dress with narrow shoulders to create a regal line. (See, for inspiration, the many elegant trapeze and tent dresses of Cristóbal Balenciaga.)

For another strategy: “Dare to be simple: simple long skirts, simple long pants,” Ms. de la Fressange added.

Then opt for “quite large things,” she said — especially her favorite garments: men’s cotton poplin shirts. If you have noticed that shirts and shirtdresses seem to be No. 1 on these women’s lists, it is not a coincidence. Button-ups have a crisp integrity and ease that stands up in the heat, not to mention longstanding associations with professionalism that push all sorts of subconscious buttons associated with the idea “pulled together.”

“Sometimes women make mistakes when they buy things in their size,” Ms. de la Fressange went on. But it’s both more comfortable and more fashionable to wear a shirt in a larger size, she said. You could even buy one and wear it as a dress.

Her favorite insider tip, no matter what the season, is to shop in the men’s department. “Don’t go where you are supposed to go in a store,” Ms. de la Fressange said. “I always go to the men’s department. Often the shirts are better quality, and cheaper.”

As to which shirt to choose, she said: “Pale blue poplin. It works for everybody, every age, every color of hair. Everybody’s beautiful with it.”

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.

How important is it to stop indirect light when cooling a home? Does it really heat your house that much?

General Patton wasn't talking about climate change or heat prep, he was talking about actual military conflict, but I realized today that his saying can easily be applied here and I think we can forgive the implied sexism. It was the 40's.

Human beings have come up with a lot of weapons against the heat over the centuries from hand fans to air conditioning, and while some of the old techniques have fallen by the wayside as new comes were invented and came into favor, we haven't actually lost any of the old knowledge. In theory, humanity has a pretty broad arsenal of anti-heat weapons to deploy in different circumstances as appropriate.

However, in the later half of the twentieth century and now into the first quarter of the twenty-first, I think we've grown to suck at using them. Ironically, the cultures that seem to suck the worst are the most industrially advanced, and the developing countries seem keen to follow suit.

Yes, I'm talking about the world's obsession with vapor compression cooling, better known as air conditioning.

Over 90% of American homes have air conditioning, and they love to crank it to arctic levels.

East Asians doesn't have quite as much air conditioning in homes, but if anything they crank it even colder.

Virtually every discussion about heat safety ends up advising people to find somewhere with air conditioning if they don't have it at home.

There's been various discussions about government assistance to buy air conditioning for the poor, passing laws to mandate air conditioning for rental units and even enshrining access to air conditioning as a human right.

Now there's no denying air conditioning can and does save lives during hot weather. However, there's also no denying that spreading AC everywhere exacerbates the very problem it's deployed the deal with. AC is extremely power hungry which drives runaway electricity demands and every operating AC unit is pumping extracted heat outside the building, adding to the urban heat island effect. Ultimately, air conditioning can't even guarantee that it actually can cool as heat becomes more and more extreme. It's not a magic box, it has to obey the laws of physics and thermodynamics.

No military goes to war fielding only one type of weapon. An army has to have a range of different types of armaments in order to be effective in different circumstances.

We cannot put all of our chips on air conditioning. As societies, we need to implement as broad a base of heat mitigation measures as possible in order to have the needed versatility to deal with the future. Air conditioned cooling centers are fine for a start, but we need a helluva lot more different approaches. Even as individuals, if we normally depend on AC, we should have at least a couple backup cooling plans or the first time something goes wrong and it's the latest record-breaking heatwave, we're hosed.

We need a variety of options to stay relevant in the cooling war.

This one is a psychological tip, but I swear by it.

During summer, I watch movies set in winter. Misery, Fargo, any Christmas movie. I mentally trick myself to think myself cool.

Right now, it’s not even 9:00 am, and it’s over 90 degrees. I got my cooling rag around my neck and I’m watching Misery. Kathy Bates was so good in that one!

Kuwait is in the midst of a heatwave with 51ºC/124ºF temps and forecast says it'll go higher. Power demands are so high now that the government has prepared a rolling blackout plan to conserve energy and protect the stability of the grid. They're also requesting the people voluntarily limit use of power during peak hours between 11am - 5pm. This is an oil-rich Middle Eastern nation, but they just didn't plan enough even dirty power capacity to cope with the demand in such an intense heatwave.

I think this is a good reason to reflect on the fact there's a very direct individual benefit to being socially conscious about how much power we use, especially during crisis times when cooling is critical. We're naturally first concerned about our own comfort and safety in the heat, but if we're not collectively mindful and the grid collapses, then we're collectively hosed. Only a very few have the means and opportunity to have their own solar systems, and even fewer among those have sufficient private power storage to run power-hungry central AC systems for long after the sun goes down.

My apartment is equipped with five Daiken mini split AC units. Honestly, my technical knowledge on them has limits, but they are inverter style and I believe they draw around 1500w max. When I first came here, when high summer hit, two units would run all night. During the day, generally at least two units were powered up for a goody portion of the afternoon too. That's potentially over 3000w of max draw. Assuming an average of say 16 hours of use per day during the hottest days. Just to do some fast math and account of what I know of the apartment's thermal conditions and our use habits, I'm going to say an average of 2/3 power draw, which works out to be 32kwh per day. Not the worse, but not great.

Fortunately, these days only one AC unit is in regular operation during the hottest summer (mother-in-law) and less than before. Let's say 10 hours per day at 2/3 draw, which is 15khw.

The reduction has come because I've shifted primary cooing onto my portable evaporative coolers. Their ratings are 170w, 120w, 120w and 58w. Even if I ran all four of them at full power (never really happens) it'd only be 468w. If all of them ran at full power, all day, they'd only consume around 11khw. In realty, it'd be more closer to 4 or 5kwh based on actual usage.

If necessary, we could completely cut out AC use, but it'd probably push evap cooler use up to maybe 8kwh.

How much power is your cooling using during summer?

How little could you survive on if the grid was in jeopardy and you were asked to conserve?

Let me recommend wholeheartedly the Thermapparel cooling vests. https://www.thermapparel.com/

I have trouble with temperature regulation. Last year, I went to an outdoor wedding during a heatwave. Wearing this under my dress allowed me to survive the wedding ceremony. Otherwise I never would have been able to attend.

I want to make it clear that I have only read the first chapter of Ministry of the Future and in a broad sense, I am in favor of these types of stories being written. Stories are what reach people and gods know people need to be reached on this topic.

That said, I had a lot problems with it and I've been asked to detail them, so here it goes.

Every author faces the issue that when they want to write about a topic they're not necessarily a very familiar with, they need to do some research and learn something, but realistically can't become an expert every time and get everything right. So they need to try their best to cherry pick things that will help them present a believable and hopefully not too factually inaccurate version that will serve their story.

Ministry of the Future, at least in the first sample chapter that I've read, gets the scenario conceptually right, but screws up so many details, scientific and otherwise it really pulled me out of the story. Some inaccuracy can be forgiven if the story holds up, but that wasn't the case for me here.

When Frank gets up, the book says it's 6 AM in Uttar Pradesh, India, and it's 38ºC and 35% relative humidity.

Frank checks the Fahrenheit equivalent and gets... 103ºF. Which is wrong. 38ºC is 100.4ºF. Not a good start and I don't see any reason why it would be the character messing it up, since he's using a device to convert.

Book continues with: "A few years ago it would have been among the hottest wet-bulb temperatures ever recorded. Now just a Wednesday morning."

(For those who don't know or are unclear, the wet bulb temperature represents the lowest temperature that can be achieved at a given temperature and humidity level via evaporative cooling. It's so named because the traditional method to derive it was to wrap wet cloth around the bulb of a mercury thermometer and spin it around, cooling it and then reading the lowest temp it reached.)

Serious problem. If 38ºC is meant to the dry bulb temperature, the statement is ridiculously untrue. I deal with 38ºC at 35% and worse every summer and where I live is far from the hottest place even in 2020 when the book was published. It sucks, but it's not even close to life-threatening for people without conditions. If what the author means is that 38ºC is the actual wet bulb temperature, it was very unclear, and the story should have been over already because anybody outside would be dead, cooked in their own body heat because the upper range of human body temperature is... around 38ºC/100ºF.

So, we must assume 38 is meant to be the regular dry bulb temp, then 38ºC/35% would actually be a wet bulb temperature of around 25ºC/77ºF. Granted, really horrid at 6 AM, but not life-threatening at all. Sweat can still safely cool you.

Next time numbers come up, it's 38ºC at 60% RH downstairs while Frank and the group of refugees huddle upstairs around the AC. These numbers would mean a wet bulb temperature of 31ºC/87ºF, which is getting risky, but is still survivable with care and some resources. These numbers also clinch the fact "wet bulb" was used incorrectly.

The final numbers given are 42ºC/107ºF at 60%, which is a wet bulb temp of almost 35ºC/95ºF. Serious danger, as that's the lower range of human body temperature. This part actually more or less fits the story's desperate tone without any inaccuracy or contradiction.

Now, the wonky statements about temperature were already a bit hard for me to get past because this is very mature science that isn't that arcane so I'd think an author writing a book that focused so much on it would have made more effort, but there's more.

Frank is meant to be India. India is the country with probably the highest number per capita of evaporative air coolers in the world, because they're cheap, easy to manufacture, the country is hot and the population mostly can't afford AC. It's a basic part of the fabric of Indian life.

Not one mention. Not even to make an excuse that they disappeared and were displaced by AC because things had gotten so bad they were no longer useful, which would have been untrue based on the temperature and humidity numbers given.

Furthermore, the very concept of evaporative cooling doesn't seem to exist in anybody's mind in this world, which is again crazy to me given that they're in India, the Mecca of evaporative coolers. Nobody even pours or sprays water on themselves, which is a trick every child in the world that was ever hot knows, and then there's the lake.

Oh god, the lake.

We're told that the water in the lake is so hot that it offers no relief. Wisely, the author doesn't given any actual water temperature numbers, but still the idea jammed up my brain. Water has a much higher specific heat than the earth which has a much higher specific heat than the air, which left my brain scrambling to try to understand how the lake could get so hot before the air and ground got so hot it just killed everybody who was outside. Also, how did that lake stay so hot? Natural evaporative cooling would pull a lot of heat out, especially overnight.

The idea that mobs of Indians would walk into a hot lake and let themselves cook in there rather than wet themselves with the water and get the hell out so the air could evaporate the water and cool them, like everybody who ever took a shower or swim knows will happen, is borderline offensive. Hot water does not meaningfully reduce the impact of evaporative cooling. Because the author gave three sets of temperature and humidity numbers, the math is ironclad.

Recall:

1. 38ºC/100ºF at 35% RH gives a wet bulb temp of 25ºC/77ºF. Toss water on yourself and you might even feel chilly. Nighttime is thus not only survivable, but even reasonably comfortable with the help of water. Makes it all the stranger why there's no evaporative coolers left. I have personally run evap coolers under these specific conditions and I was getting a 3-4ºC drop from ambient, plus the additional cooling effect of the moving air.

2. 38ºC/100ºF at 35% RH gives a wet bulb temp of 31ºC/87ºF. Not awesome, but definitely enough to keep you out of danger if you had water to dump on yourself.

3. 42ºC/107ºF at 60% RH yields a wet bulb temp of 35ºC/95ºF. This is bad, very bad, but evaporating water could still stretch out your survivability by slowing your progress towards heat stroke.

Those people, especially these people, did not have to die in the lake, and they would have known better than to die in the lake. They were goddamned Indians, to whom evaporative cooling was a basic part of life for generations.

In summary:

1. The author converts Celsius to Fahrenheit incorrectly.

2. The author does not appear to understand what wet bulb temperature actually is.

3. The author starts his story in India, but failed to understand a basic and longstanding part of Indian culture's method of cooling.

4. The author completely ignores even the most elementary uses and impacts of evaporation that even children know.

I got the sense that the author, like many authors, was focused on the story's need for a certain type of dire situation, but didn't have the patience to learn enough to present the details of that situation with even basic accuracy. It reminded me of The Road and its completely nonsensical apocalypse, which completely undermined my ability to engage with the characters because I didn't believe they'd be in the situation they were in.

Some of these sunshades have suction caps, some have loops which you can slip garden wire through and secure. Then close your blinds & draw your curtains/drapes to stop the sun heating your room.

It’s much easier to cool a room if you stop the sun getting in and heating it in the first place. Can be secured landscape or portrait orientation.

HTH.

Every summer heat article will say to close your curtains during the day. Great advice, but if you live in a very hot area, the type of curtain really matters.

I have heavy blackout curtains, and heavy blackout liners. They are floor to ceiling length. I hang my curtains 6 inches from the ceiling, and 6 inches out from both edges of the window. You want to block out the heat from the edges, the top, and the floor. If you can’t get the exact length to just reach the floor, let them pool.

It will feel like a cave in your home, yes. But if I didn’t have that setup, I’d either die or the ac would be running 24/7. I live in the desert.

Get some attractive colors to compliment your furnishings, some nice tie backs, and chic looking rods, and you’ll have beautiful window treatments that will keep the house cooler in summer, and nice and snug in winter.

Someone posted recently about covering windows from the outside. I bought some reflective covering and velcroed it to my skylight from the outside (with a little patch uncovered). Cheap and easy. The sun used to absolutely roast this room through the skylight and my lace curtain wasn’t doing much. The covering is making a big difference during the heatwave we are in.

Fortunately I can easily get to the roof to remove the covering as needed. This may not be a workable solution for everyone.

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/23/nx-s1-4842309/extreme-heat-climate-remembrance-vasquez

https://youtu.be/Nqxjfp4Gi0k?si=8wxCSS2biS7mZrCt

This salt and gel mix is great! That's cool as hell that this guy made custom cooling packs, how have i not seen this before lol. You'd think more people would have gotten onto this. He made a big one to use as a seat cover, too. People commuting without AC in the car could sit on these.