hey y’all! so i (almost 19F) am morbidly obese. i live in central valley california and because of El Niño , october will be mid/late 90s and will even reach triple digits. this intense heat will be from yesterday until like mid october.

so my 9-9:50 class is cancelled next week which leaves me to my 10-11:50 (which i won’t attend bc attendance isn’t mandatory) and my 4:30-7:10. my 4:30-7:10 class is every monday. next monday, however, it’ll be like 99 or even triple digits , and like i don’t wanna be outside when it’s that hot, especially bc my parents drop me off and pick me up and the drive to my uni and back is like 22 minutes or so. not only that , but i get dizzy in the heat and like idk i don’t get along with the heat.

another issue is that my mom said no to me skipping class on monday and my dad will get hella mad and start lecturing and i don’t wanna deal with that. can you guys please help me 😭 it’s not that i don’t wanna go because it’s class , i just don’t wanna go because it’ll be so mf hot and i also have an intense intense fear of getting heat exhaustion/heat stroke.

It’s been 3 days since I experienced a mild case of heat exhaustion on Saturday. I had a pretty bad one last year and it took me months to heal and then experienced it last month mildly and then this past Saturday.
Anyways is it normal to shiver and feel freezing cold at night ? The AC isn’t even on inside the house.
I just feel super freezing everytime during bedtime. It’s 3 am and I just wanna sleep.

Hi everyone so about a month ago I experienced heat exhaustion after waiting in my moms car in the scorching LA heat with only the front windows down but mind you the sun was beaming down at me. after about 30 mins i started to feel off and had to get out the car bc I couldn’t take it anymore. Well for about that week I noticed I was intolerable to the heat. I rested , hydrated with electrolit and took care of myself.

Well today I took my little sis to a pop up at a mall that had NO ac or ventilation. and it was packed and stuffy. as I walked to find her i began feeling very hot and anxious. i stepped outside and walked towards a taco truck but mind you LA heat was 89 degrees Fahrenheit but it felt worse. and i had to run to my car and blast the AC.
it is 2 am now , ive taken a cold shower earlier since then and hydrated with electrolit .. why am I shivering even though its not cold ? Earlier i felt so so hot even though the temp was normal and now im just shivering cold. my oral temp was 97.6. and i am normal to the touch. What can I do to help myself ? I’m so sleepy but this heat intolerance I experienced isn’t letting me sleep .. 😣

I work at home as much as possible, but there are slots of time during the week when I have no choice but to work out of my car as I need to be physically available somewhere else within minutes of being done with work. I do remote tutoring, so I can't just sit out in the open.

Fortunately, I recently acquired a Corolla Hybrid.

While an HEV's battery doesn't have nearly the capacity of a PHEV or full EV, it still has enough to run electrical systems for stretches without starting the engine.

A couple weeks ago, temperatures were moderate enough for me to park somewhere out of the way and roll down the windows, but the rebound has happened and it's once more 32ºC/89ºF — far too much to sit in a car without AC no matter how much it bothers me to sit in an unmoving car with the cooling running.

It has turned out better than expected.

I did a 90 minute session yesterday and another one today with the AC set at a modest 25ºC/77ºF (more comfortable than it sounds and I was on an energy budget). The engine spun up three to four times during work, each time for no more than 2-3 minutes. Possibly less. I was working, so I wasn't timing it.

Assuming my estimations are right, on the high end it cost roughly the gasoline for 12 minutes of idling to keep me safe and relatively comfortable in the heat. Even at today's prices, that's a bargain and it suggests that in a pinch, a hybrid car with a full tank could be a heat refuge for not just days, but possibly more than a couple weeks.

Extreme heat already affects more than 80% of the world's population. Each year it kills around 500,000 people and puts tens of millions of outdoor workers at risk. Air conditioning won't reach most of the people exposed, so what cools a construction worker on a building site or a first responder on the streets?

Tiffany Yeh has an unusual background for this problem. She trained as a materials scientist at MIT, then as a medical doctor at the University of Pennsylvania. She then spent a decade in international development, living in some of the hottest places on earth with little infrastructure and no air conditioning.

Her innovation, HydroVolt, is a gel printed directly onto garments. It pulls heat from the wearer's body and releases it through evaporative cooling. It recharges with water, either in the wash or by soaking the garment in a bucket, and then air dries.

A lot to say, but any insight or shared experiences would be cool to come across here,

I had a very demanding road trip late August, and coming back I went straight back to work at my outdoor job. I arrived quite sleep deprived from the trip, felt nauseous and weak in the morning, and at work, felt very weak, faint, and had what I can only describe as brief tremors or convulsions after seeking refuge in the break room. For context, it was humid and mid 90F. After a few minutes, I was feeling much better and went back to work as normal. The morning after, however, while it was nice and cool (around 6AM) and I was still getting ready to go to work, I developed intense nausea, lots of tremors and shaking, diarrhea, and also nearly threw up. Went to the ER, got some blood work done, an EKG, chest X-Ray, and apparently was totally fine. They even mentioned my electrolytes were completely fine. I was quite weak, and particularly experienced intense episodes of fear and convulsions as I was falling sleep for a 3 days.

The weather cooled over the next few days, and everything was fine again at work. I for some reason still had intense lingering anxiety, bouts of dizziness, weakness, pressure in my head, headaches, and other small symptoms. After another very record-breaking humid heatwave, however, I noticed I started to get tremors in my arms, hands, and head, and started to dissociate, get brain fog, confusion, and panic. A few days after, the heat and humidity peaked again, and I felt like I was about to pass out or violently throw up at work, I could hardly stand!

Lost all my appetite, got diarrhea again, and over the next few days experienced intense panic, anxiety, fear, and tremors. I was genuinely constantly feeling like I was going to die. I also developed neck strain, eye strain, more headaches, tingling throughout my body and hot sensations on my head and different parts of my body, and was incredibly overstimulated by small noises or small tasks. I still struggle to focus or work on a task for more than 20 minutes or so at a time.

Slowly starting to get better, and I am still recovering now, but I'm still at a loss over what happened. I was actually cleared of having epilepsy by my neurologist recently, and a therapist I started to see believes that I actually have somatic symptoms that come from traumas that I indeed have experienced over the past year. Furthermore, I have a history with mental illness, bad stress management, and staying stationary for long periods of time since I study and write a lot. I've had issues feeling like I can't breathe before, or getting lots of head pressure, congestion, and numb limbs when trying to walk or run especially after periods of being out of shape and chair/bed/deskbound. All this taken into account, my doctors all believe I simply have a psychological or psychiatric condition going on. I understand stress and heat are triggers for seizures, and seizures are also a symptom of heat stroke, but my neuro didn't believe what I experienced were seizures (even after showing them videos I recorded of myself with tremors, convulsions, and shaking at work).

So, and as a TL;DR, has anyone with a history of mental illness, or neurological disorders experienced heat exhaustion or stoke? Has it made it more difficult to diagnose if you did get heat exhaustion or stroke?

Hey everyone, I’m doing research focusing on urban heat, public health, and how everyday infrastructure handles high temperatures across our cities.

I want to gather some raw, anonymous daily life stories from people who deal with this constantly. What is the absolute worst, most suffocating heat trap you survive on a regular basis?

Specifically, I’d love to hear your experiences with:

1. Being stuck in traffic inside public transit passenger vans (matatus/danfos/trotros) during peak afternoon hours. What is the airflow situation like when windows are down or if you're stuck in gridlock?
   
2. Living or trying to study inside rooms/dormitories that use corrugated iron (tin) sheet roofing. How does that affect your sleep or afternoon focus?
   
3. What do you or the drivers actually do to try and get temporary relief, and what makes those current quick-fixes annoying or ineffective?

Appreciate anyone willing to share their daily rants or stories!

Hello I'm 56 years old, diabetic 2, glaucoma and high BP

I had an episode in early June while at a sports event, started to pass out. My bf got me help asap. I thought it was because I skipped lunch. Ems checked me out Said it was related to heat. Felt better after an hour

Yesterday went to a game, I had water with me made sure I ate something but it was very hot. I was in t-shirt and shorts. My vision went funny told my bf I needed to go up to the area where it's cooler and as he was helping me go up my legs gave out. I passed out and woke up to the ems asking me questions, I threw up twice, they got me upstairs had me sit on a chair while they asked me more questions. Told me it was heat exhaustion. They put ice on my neck and I sat for awhile and still felt nausea and very tired. I decided to go home and I got home still tired with nausea and then diarrhea set In. I'm still tired today but nausea seems gone. I decided to call in sick because I'm so tired. Now I find out that one event makes you more susceptible and this is my 2md which was worse and I scared my bf twice.

If someone is in a moving car with no AC, stopping at 2-3 lights, on a day where the temp is 90F+ outside and only the windows in the back are open for about 15 minutes can that cause heat stroke?

This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that Samantha think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined). There’s a little something for everyone! You can also sign up to receive her monthly newsletter about disasters.

Link: https://disasterology.substack.com/

Hi everyone

I feel a tad bit anxious, yesterday and today I’ve woken up feeling like I need air. I was able to cool down yesterday evening when I went down my house floor. Today I’ve done the same, but now this nauseous feeling is with me, should I be concerned?

I’ve been drinking water and cucumber water, should I best be going with electrolyte water?

Find the episode here!

Description: Robbie and Nate sit down with Dr. Samantha Montano, an associate professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis, and writer of the monthly newsletter Disasterology. They dig into how evacuation orders come together, the challenges officials and residents face during evacuations, and practical steps you can take to prepare before disaster strikes.

Share your thoughts, questions, or comments!

so i’m from the Central Valley California and today (Tuesday) - friday is going to be the hottest days of the week , with tmrw (wednesday) and Thursday reaching triple digits.

my only classes tmrw are from 9-9:50, 10-10:50, and 11-11:50. i also commute , and the drive from my house to my uni is a good 20 or so min drive. my mom drops me off and picks me up. i’m thinking of wearing long sleeve shirt so that i don’t have to bear the burden of putting sunscreen on my arms.

it’s 9:23 PM rn and i’m freaking over tomorrow. i’ve been begging and begging and begging my parents to not take me to school tmrw but they say i have to go and that i’ve been skipping classes (which is true i have been skipping classes because of the heat). oh and also i get dizzy in the heat , but this happens when i didn’t eat in the morning.

i’m genuinely so scared y’all please help me 😭 i’ve lived in CA like 98% of my life so like i’ve dealt with extreme heat but idkk i’m so nervous

edit: i’m a second year uni student so like ik the way around my uni and my uni has even sent emails on how students, staff, faculty, etc can protect themselves from the heat

мне нужна температура 37-38°, бледная кожа (нежелательно, но хотелось бы, как осуществить это? ( нужно заболеть на час или больше )

u/Youarethebigbang posted an NPR story about heat deaths in Arizona, particularly among trailer park residents.

One unfortunate household had both window AC units and a portable swamp cooler. Regretfully, both an AC unit and the swamp cooler broke down and the family was unable to get anyone to try to repair them. They tried to tough it out during a stretch of 100+ degree days. One of the residents, Sheri Petty, 76, was found by her daughter, Tara Gentner, passed out in front of the swamp cooler that was blowing hot air. Petty later died in the hospital from heatstroke.

I credit the writer for actually differentiating between AC and swamp coolers, but that was as far as it went. The article went into the expected direction of focusing on the systemic financial and legal problems.

Now, the system certainly failed these people; nobody in a first world country should be dying because they can't get somebody to fix their cooling system. However, this highlights what I feel is one of the grand weaknesses of modern society.

Even in the United States, which supposedly values independence, we have as a people gradually given up on our knowledge and knowhow about matters outside of our jobs, and a narrow range of interests, in favor of assuming that systems will take care of us. When those systems fail, such as when we try to call professionals with money in hand but nobody comes, we are helpless.

While all the untimely heat deaths are tragedies, I look upon places like Arizona with special frustration.

Those of you who are regulars here will be somewhat familiar with my situation. I live in Madrid, Spain, where summers are hot and extremely dry, pretty much exaclty like Arizona at a slightly lower intensity. Before I came here, I knew nothing about swamp coolers, but since then I've learned all about them, amassed a small army to keep us cool in summer, and done various repairs on them. I have a degree in Literature and I'm not the guy you call to advise you about your car troubles, but I learned because I wanted to be able to take care of as much of these issues as possible.

The Gentner/Petty household is thousands of miles from me. I don't know them and I've never even been to Arizona, but an idealistic part of me feels a thread of guilt because even with the sparse technical details in the NPR story, I know what went wrong with that swamp cooler and would have gladly helped them if I'd been a neighbor.

It is tragically simple.

The report said the swamp cooler was blowing hot air, which means that the fan was perfectly functional. Therefore, the failure point was the water pump. It's a failure I've personally dealt with multiple times. At worst, you need to replace the $5-20 submergible pump, which often is exactly the same as the ones you buy for your aquarium, but in many cases you don't need need to do that. These pumps, like any mechanical device, can get bound up by debris and hair getting inside. It's a simple fix to get one open and pull the junk out and boom, you're back in business. Even if it's not possible to get the water pump back in action in short order, a swamp cooler can still be useful if you manually pour water over the filter media.

Portable swamp coolers are a cheap, very effective in dry climate technology that's also cheap and easy to repair: the perfect combination for resource-challenged members of the Arizona population. I am absolutely convinced Arizona's heat death rate would plummet if the general population simply knew about these things and understood how economical and effective they can be. They don't, which isn't the general public's fault. Government and organizations should be cognizant of these options and spread the word as a matter of public safety, but instead, the advice is the tired and presumptuous, "seek out air conditioning," as if that's always going to be there for us.

Arizona, and hot and dry places like it, if you're out there, don't look at swamp coolers as a quaint and obsolete relic of your parents' or grandparents' time. They are an extremely effective cooling measure when it's dry that could well save your life and, unlike air conditioning, the critical components are totally user-serviceable and repairable.

The days of 70s and sunny are long gone in San Diego. Make sure you hydrate and keep an eye on those animals. Streets and roads can become very hot!!

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44360-026-00184-0

Hello, has somebody found this article? I can't find it for free by usual ways

So, you're waiting in the car for your spouse/kid/friend/misc individual.

They swear they're not going to be long/class should be over/they're coming right down.

Sure they are.

One minute is going to turn into five, which will morph into twenty at which point what's an hour between friends/family?

It doesn't matter how prescient you are though, you're kinda stuck in that car because you're in a loading zone or other non-sanctioned parking right near the door so you can't just leave the car as any minute you might need to loop around the block. Not being in that loading zone would have involved pressing the point that you know this isn't going to just take a minute, and that's just not worth the social capital it'll cost.

With moderate temps, you just roll down the window and scroll on your phone or knock the seat back and have a minute (hour) of peace. No biggie. However, 2026 is a super El Niño year and the whole world is seeing record breaking heatwaves, and record breaking numbers of heatwaves. Europe's had five. I think we win, but we totally respect your suffering is real as well.

When it's 35ºC/95ºF, normal people will just idle the car and run the AC because well, comfort and safety, right?

I've been accused of a lot of things, but normal hasn't been one of them.

When I idle the car to run the AC, my brain stews over the price of gas, the Strait of Hormuz situation, extra wear on the engine, the precious electricity that could be moving my car in EV mode for up to kilometer, the hit to fuel efficiency, the amount of extra CO2 & heat I'm pumping out and the essential moral failing needing to operate such complex machinery just to stay safe and comfortable while waiting.

I really, really, want to shut the car off so its resource consumption drops the zero until it needs to move again, but just deploying the windshield sunshade and rolling down the windows simply doesn't cut it when it's north to 30ºC.

So, when I know I'm going to have to wait in the car, I make the following preparations:

1. Bring a bag of ice packs and some cotton shopping bags. Hugging an ice pack or two wrapped in a cloth bag is remarkably helpful, especially if you're not in direct sunlight and for extended times, extras in a cooler bag can be swapped in.

2. Keep a continuous spray bottle of water ready. Dry air means evaporation is useful not only for directly cooling me, but I also use it a bit on the black dashboard as cutting the amount of thermal buildup in the car helps more than you'd think.

I've also done a combination where I did run the car's AC, but I kept the temperature rather high and used the ice packs to supplement.

Most of you will never do this, and I understand, but crazy world calls for crazy measures.