To my northern neighbours suffering from the current heat wave.
I lived in approx 38C with 90% humidity for 20 years, and I have a few pieces of advice.
1. Don't do anything fast that you can do slow.
2. Umbrellas aren't just for rain. They work for sun, too.
3. Sweat is your friend. Drink lots of liquid, eat and drink things that trigger sweating.
4. Cold showers and baths trigger your body to warm up. Room temp showers work best - and don't bother drying off.
Are you sure about those numbers? 38C with 90% humidity is 36.5C wet-bulb.
That is not survivable by a human and sweating does not cool one down at all in such a temperature. Also, according to Wikipedia, the highest recorded wet bulb temperature ever was 36.3C in UAE.
@vriesk Well, I lived in Ho Chi Minh City for two decades. It regularly hits that temperature and in the rainy season the humidity regularly hovers between 80-90
So, I don't know what you want me to say.
Will you get some extra satisfaction by thinking I'm lying to you while you fry?
@Remittancegirl No, I absolutely don't think you're lying or anything like that. 38C dry-bulb is definitely happening in many places, also the humid ones.
Also, your hot-weather advice is very sound and good.
Just that during the peak-temperature hours, the relative humidity is likely even lower than 80% even during the wettests months, as 38C with even 80% is 34.8C, still on the edge of survival for humans. Vietnam is not listed to ever get above 34C in this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature#Heat_waves_with_high_humidity
@vriesk And you mansplain someone who *really and personally* lived there, experienced it ... with your Wikipedia wisdom?! Just hide quickly under the next rock!
@vriesk Man, what is your problem? Doubling down even. Just stop embarassing yourself, please.
@svenscholz Can we stop with this?
There is theory - and science - and then there's just living in thick, hot soup for 6 months a year.
And they're fundamentally different things. Which sounds annoying because theory should be absolutely the truth.
Lived experience just exceeds expectations. That's all I'm saying.
@Remittancegirl @svenscholz yeah, that's extreme.
BTW, do fans still help at those temperatures and humidities?
I'm always surprised how big of a difference sitting next to a fan makes in the somewhat less extreme 35C with low humidity, maybe even a bit better (but very localized) than just AC.
@vriesk
Yes, absolutely. They help evaporate sweat, even if just a little, even if they're not cooling you down directly.
I notice that fans really stop helping at about 40. But it never got that hot in Vietnam where I was. But when I was in Cordoba, which is very dry heat, I noticed that fans started to feel like a hair-dryer on hot at 40C. If anything, it made it feel worse.
@Remittancegirl @vriesk @svenscholz
Fans still help at 40+ if you're wet, the problem is you dry off fast enough that things get right back to hair dryer. I think at a certain temperature, with the fan on you can't sweat fast enough to keep it cooling you down.
It's like hand dryers in bathrooms. The air in them is hot but they still feel cold until your hands dry off.
@fietsria @Remittancegirl @vriesk @svenscholz
Yeah, the point is that keeping yourself wet enough for the fan to help is something you have to actively think about at those temperatures
@gbargoud @fietsria @Remittancegirl @vriesk @svenscholz
Living in the American Southwest in the 90s, they began to put misting fans on restaurant patios. It made a 100*F (37.7C) day so much more bearable. Moisture and a fan could drop the ambient air temperature enough to make it comfortable.
They became available at reasonable prices for home use too. The simple systems are just an atomizing watering ring in front of a fan.
@Remittancegirl @Pomegranatepirate @MyWoolyMastadon @fietsria @vriesk @svenscholz
In Egypt, Nubian architecture tends to include at least one room that is a large dome with a small hole in the top for stack effect ventilation although that is for a dry heat not a wet heat: the number of days per year that rain comes through that hole is often in the single digits
@Secret_Squirrel @Remittancegirl @svenscholz my experience comes mostly from (north) California, Florida, and Louisiana, so I don't know.
They all look more like a lazy construction work than anything (mounting a non-split unit on the top of the window is harder than just ripping a hole under said window and putting the thing on the floor).
@Remittancegirl @vriesk @svenscholz
You find those floor vents in older houses built before AC was a thing. They are stupid. They make it impossible to put your furniture where you want it. They collect dust like crazy too.
Even after AC was a thing aome builders kept putting them in the floor because it was cheaper than adding enough duct work to put them in the ceilings. It really seems to be a regional problem in the US.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz I think the floor vents in southern homes are a combination of a hold-over of older houses that had a heater for the winter but relied on open windows and air flow in summer, people bringing northern building practices south without considering the local climate (more than half the US is in climates where heating is more important than cooling), and slow cultural change where floor vents and ceiling fans are seen as normal or classic and upper wall vents are seen as unsightly.
Also, many older houses built with floor vents are poorly insulated, and at least in Florida, many people *suffer* when it gets to 50-55 F (10-12C).
@Robotistry @vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz
My folks had their house rebuilt after a tornado had hit it. They lived in the south. They had to fight with the builder to put R35 insulation in the attic. The damn man insisted it didn't get cold enough for it without realizing you want it as well for keeping a house cooler when running AC. It was also a fight for decent insulation in the walls.
I got up there when it was finished and added another layer and made sure the soffits were open.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz also we don't have AC in Europe.
Not going to get into a big argument about why, because some entitled Yanks think their wars for oil are a good trade off for subsidised energy/oil costs.
We have really high energy costs, so even if the AC is cheap to install (it isn't but not the highest cost) then the energy cost will burn you, even if you're cool.
Also...most of our building were built before A/C was a thing, so hard to adapt, more expense.
@radioclash @Remittancegirl @svenscholz but we absolutely do.
Italian, Spanish, or Greek cities are all humming with AC in the summer.
Even for Poland, having a balcony was a major point in choosing my current apartment, so that I could install an AC unit there without hassle, even though I try not to use it unless I really feel like I have to.
AC power consumption is one of a really few things that synergizes well with solar panel output, especially in the north.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz in the UK - which is in Europe BTW - Ireland and nordic countries, it's rare.
Italy, Spain and Greece are not the entirety of 'Europe'
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz solar panels? In the UK? LOL.
So much rain means cloud...
Yeah....wind is more likely.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz I am with a provider that tells me exactly the times the solar is on, and yes it's 'LOL' cos most of the time it's off.
When they have surplus - i.e. a sunny or windy day - I get free/very cheap electricity, but usually that only happens once maybe twice a month.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz 'on sunny days' is doing some heavy lifting here.
Do you know how many those there are in the UK? Not a lot. More nowadays, but most of the year, it's dull and grey.
@sidereal @vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz
And the point is...it's hard enough to get locals to agree to wind farms, solar is impossible. Everywhere I walk on my long hikes I see 'STOP THE SOLAR FARM' signs.
People are very resistant to it, oddly. In a way they aren't so much about antennas or data centres. (in the UK I am talking here, and we are talking about Europe, nowhere else)
@radioclash @Remittancegirl @svenscholz what kind of "experience" you mean? "LoL" vs data?
UK has literally 20GW of installed solar capacity which produced some 6.5% of total electricty in 2025. Sure, it works better in more sunny places, still not "LoL".
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz - direct experience of watching the import prices of my green supplier and noting when the solar and wind is on and I get free or very cheap electricity yes.
Do you do that every day for UK green electricty prices? I do.
Pretty sure you don't....
@radioclash @vriesk @svenscholz
I'm going to beg you all to be civil. Because what does it achieve not to be?
What I know for sure is that we have worthy common enemies that are better targets for our anger.
@vriesk @radioclash @svenscholz
What I find even scarier is that most governments and most of the financial world still will not truly acknowledge climate change enough to stop burning fossil fuel. Even when it would be absolutely feasible to do it.
That IS scarier.
@vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz
It's shit for the environment anyway. That's the thing the AC freaks pass by. You're just making everyone else hotter.
Open a fucking window, build your houses for heat and with water features, keep the shutters closed, and drink cold drinks!
Islamic countries know how to do this, it's an ancient art.
@radioclash @vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz I remember when I was in Egypt and Jordan, "American-style" AC blasting straight arctic temperatures was super common there over ten years ago. Not everyone there lives in a historic building (most people in Cairo live in 20th century built high rises), and climate change has made it so that the historic buildings' passive heating systems are often overwhelmed
The good news is that heat pump ACs are actually reasonably environmentally friendly.
@sidereal @vriesk @Remittancegirl @svenscholz I was there in 2011...during the elections, it was fun *ahem*...I now know what tear gas smells like.
I didn't have A/C in my room. A/C was quite rare as I seem to remember?
You must've stayed in some posh hotels or been on a tour, I was on my own. I only remember A/C being on the tour bus to Abu Simbel. I think my room in Aswan had it, not the room in Cairo though.
But touring the mosques it was super cool - not cos of A/C but the design of them. Same in Moorish parts of Spain - those little squares with fountains and trees,, the square buildings, the windows with mesh vent holes, etc.
Amazing how it works.
And btw I wasn't talking about Egypt, I mentioned Islamic architecture as a model, so not totally sure why you brought it up?
Islamic style architecture exists in Europe, too!
Cheers. Wet-bulb temperature and how it's different from a dew point is something i learned today.
@Remittancegirl
@vriesk
FFS dude, no.
@Remittancegirl
Sorry you got "akshually"d on your lived experience, good grief.
@tarabara @vriesk @Remittancegirl
Jesus, really hoped the mansplaining would be better here. I recently had someone try to tell me you're supposed to sit on traditional Baltic swings...
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