Please please tell me you get used to the heat

[BertieBotts]

I can't sleep, I barely feel like eating, which makes me almost faint when I have to go outside. I'm so easily irritated and I can't think. I can't go out without accumulating huge sweat patches across my chest and my hair dripping, which makes me feel smelly and gross, and that's just walking around - I need to use public transport for work! It's only around 35 degrees outside but it's 32+ indoors as well.

I don't know if I can live/work like this for the whole summer! Please tell me it's possible to get used to it. Nobody else seems to have such problems

47 degrees!

Bertie I'm in Germany too (Berlin) yes it's sweltering. Are you going to stay in your flat long-term? We accidentally did something clever by moving into a ground-floor flat with little direct sun, it was a bit annoying in the winter but now it's completely cool and lovely.

I do have experience moving from a cold to very hot and humid climate in the US. I think it took 3 summers to really get used to it but then it was fine. My advice is actually not to get air con, it just makes it harder to adapt.

One trick I learned that first summer is to run cold water over the inside of your wrists (where you see the big blue vein). I don't know why but this does instantly cool you down for a bit.

Someone on my Facebook feed is living in Dubai. She posted a photo of her car dashboard yesterday saying the outside temp was 50 degrees They don't mess about with air con there though!

OP buy the air on unit. Even if it's not designed for the size of area you've got it'll still have an effect. Might not bring them temp down to 20 degrees but might get it to 25, which will feel much more comfy!

This sounds really stupid but until DH moved here last year I didn't know it was possible for the air temperature to be higher than human body temperature I just thought places that hot were inhabitable!

We're hopefully moving by 1 June next year. No idea what kind of place we'll get, though!

There is quite an unusual heat wave happening here at the moment. Normally the weather is quite pleasant at this time of year, not 38 degrees.

Our food has been the same, but I stupidly bought loads of food to cook on Friday! Hopefully it's alright.

This is our 3rd summer in California and I would say I'm more used to it now. Although I'm 34 weeks pregnant so I'm mainly staying in the house where my wonderful DH installed a window a/c unit. He also put overhead fans in the living room and our bedroom and a portable unit in our bedroom too. We had nothing the first summer and I had a new baby so we were melting during the summer months.
If I have to go out I move very slowly, drink loads of water and get to shade/aircon ASAP. I do groceries etc first thing before it's too hot (or get them delivered).

Some good suggestions here. Agree with the pp who said just slow down

Wear cotton if possible, get thick curtains or shutters, you need to block out the sunshine. You think you need lots of light in your house but when it's hot you dont!

If you have a table fan, freeze a big bottle of water and put it in front of the fan, helps to cool the air very slightly.

Also very obvious I know, but drink lots of room temperature water. Your irritability could be dehydration also because you loose so much in sweat.

And finally, I am bloody jealous! One thing I can't stop missing is a hot summer....

I have been going out each evening for a walk as a mild form of exercise.

Yesterday I went out at 9:00 pm, it was 42 degrees.

I came back a complete mess of sweat and lack of breath, and immediately went to the fridge for a cold beer (so much for the benefits of the exercise)

ha ha Partial, love it!

Another massive storm due any minute here....the whole sky has turned a very weird colour, orange with a layer of black.....

Should cool down by the end of the week......

We've been waiting for a storm since Tuesday evening, no sign yet!

Oh no. We've had one every night, but it just doesn't seem to clear the oppressive atmostphere.

I never used to believe in thunderstorm headaches but it feel like my eyeballs are being pushed out at the moment.

Bertie has it cooled down yet? It's cooled down alot today here in the north of Germany.

Hope you're coping. I remember escaping with the dc back to the north of England for most of the summer when they were small as I couldn't bear it.

You just don't expect Germany to be so hot do you? Have you got mosquitos? Another thing I didn't expect to be so bad.

It's funny how your perception of normal changes! 8 years in sub tropical Queensland and up to about 36 degrees is lovely. We have no aircon at home. Just fans. Beyond 37 is hot.. Over night highs kill me still. Over 30 at night is hot.
I remember lovely German summers as a child.
Swimming in the lakes, mini golf..

It's much cooler now :) We've only seen one mosquito so far. Did the thing where you hear it, think for a second, then DH and I jumped up in unison, I put the light on and he grabbed something splatter worthy and we both stood there poised until we found it

We are spending a couple of months in a hot place at the moment but it's hot all summer here so there is plenty of AC. I have lived in the tropics before and didn't always have AC, and I reckon 3 days and you aren't dying, 3 weeks and the opposite weather pattern will be uncomfortable.

Northern Europe is particularly annoying therefore as the weather changes on about that cycle.

You really do get used it. We don't use air con in the daytime unless it gets to 38c, and at night we turn it to 25/26. I am going to freeze when we leave.

I'm Southern Spain (inland) where it is around 40º most of the summer. Today has been about 35º. I have definitely got used to it. No air con. we open all the windows at night and then close them again and pull all the shutters right down about mid morning and try to do as little as possible during hot hours and drink plenty.
When the air outside is so hot and the sun so strong, you have to keep it out of the house.

The way forward is to live like the locals-you cannot live in the British way.

A UV parasol and a hand fan are essential- hats are too hot and sweaty.

Get a bandana / scarf and wet it and wear it on your neck before you leave the house. Always carry a bottle of water to wet your scarf again.

Also that tip with the cold water over your forearms is right, it really works.

Stand in the shade whenever you can, never in direct sunshine.
Stand a few metres away from the curb whenever you have to walk across a road - the heat from the asphalt and engines is stifling.

Wear polyester tops under long sleeved cotton shirts- they absorb the sweat, cotton or linen ones next to your skin just get wet and look like dish rags instantly.

Take as many quick showers as you need- a quick rinse off every few hours is fantastic.

Drink hot or lukewarm tea, not frozen or cold. Drink a cup of liquid every hour.

Use powder in your sandals. Nothing more horrible than sticky feet.

Extra weight on is like blubber, so try to go easy on the carbs and sweet drinks.

I was expecting the OP to be in the tropics or something! At least you know it WILL cool down and it's not for long. I'm stuck in near the equator and loathe the climate. I have learned to manage it better, i.e.just avoiding direct sunlight ever but it's no way to live. I long for fresh air and long daytime walks.
OP I hope you have sorted a coping mechanism and bring on autumn, eh?

Waves from a hot and sticky Japan. ( currently have a wet towel wrapped round my head) When it gets really hot I wet a thin hand towel and freeze it. Once frozen i wrap it round my neck. It is a bit like cardboard first out the fridge

I had to walk for a 1km in the sun yesterday when my car said 57C! The AC is broken though but it was definitely around 50 and my meeting was the otherside of a construction site. I have never looked so destroyed by weather in my life.

are you in the path of the typhoon? looks like a biggie.

I am in Kanto (Kanagawa) and it will eventually hit us on Friday, apparently.

take care and keep cool everyone

Fox! Top respect for walking anywhere in that heat. How broken is the AC? Does it just need re-gassing? It's meltingly hot here at the moment and of course it's Ramadan so everyone is completely off the rails. Hope you get the car fixed very soon.