Staying Cool in the Hottest of Temperatures

Heat, hot, heatwave (Kate Hinds)

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll spend our last few minutes today, going into the weekend with a call in on what you do to stay cool in the hottest of other temperatures that other listeners may not know about. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. It's 90 already in New York City. It's not even noon. It's supposed to be going to 95 today, 93 tomorrow, 95 Sunday, and that's without even taking the humidity into account for the real feel.

It's your more unusual, less recognized, most creative, or culturally better known outside the US ways that you know about to beat the heat that we're looking for that we would love you to share with the rest of us, especially those who don't have AC. 212-433-WNYC. Again, it's your more unusual, less recognized, most creative, or culturally better known outside the United States ways that you know about to beat the heat that you can share with the rest of us, especially those listeners who don't have good access to air conditioning. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692.

Here's a little bit about the science of what is actually happening in our area. As your calls start to come in yesterday, our colleagues at All Of It hosted a similar segment to this one, and they got advice from Annie Colbert, the editor-in-chief of Popular Science. Take a listen to this little explainer of this heat wave that we're in for 30 seconds.

Annie Colbert: The basic way to understand a heat wave is it's when high pressure in the atmosphere moves in and it's pushing all of this warm air towards the ground, so you're just stuck in this heat. Right now, we're experiencing something that's called a heat dome, which is a weather phenomenon where that heat is just trapped underneath it. The best way to think about it is like a pot on your oven that you put a lid on. All of that heat is stuck in there. Not only is the heat stuck in there, it's preventing milder weather systems from coming in and cooling it off, so you're just stuck in this heat and it won't break.

Brian Lehrer: That from the editor of Popular Science. We picked out one clip from All Of It's callers yesterday. Here's Stephen in Flatbush on his unique habit for hot days.

Stephen: I actually live in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I have a tiny little backyard, but I actually got a tub to fit in the backyard and I fill it up with cool water. When I work from home, I can just go out there, put a plank across it, put my computer on there, and work in some cool water.

Brian Lehrer: I love it. If you can't have a pool, put your bathtub in the backyard and use it as a micro pool. That's certainly in keeping with our ask, our invitation for you right now, your more unusual, less recognized, most creative, or culturally better known outside the US ways you know about to beat the heat. 212-433-WNYC. We'll take your calls and texts right after this.

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your more unusual, less recognized, most creative, or culturally better known outside the United States ways that you know about to beat the heat. 212-433-WNYC. A lot of them involve bathtubs. Let's see what Laura in Brooklyn has. Hi, Laura, you're on WNYC.

Laura: Hi. I don't have air conditioning. I don't like air conditioning. What I do on the really hot nights, where it's just hard to sleep, is I put six to eight inches of water in my bathtub. I don't wash in it. If I get really hot, I just slide into it, cool down for a few minutes, and then go back to bed. That's one thing. The other is something that I picked up from reading about what they do in Pakistan, where you open up things at night, particularly in the lower levels, and open the roof up if there's a hatch and let the heat escape, and then you close up everything during the day and the house stays relatively comfortable with shades closed in where the heat comes through, but [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: Laura, thank you very much. Here's the one that doesn't involve a bathtub but does involve running water. Listener writes, "Running cool water over your wrists in the sink is a great way to quickly cool off." Neil in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Neil.

Neil: Hi, Brian. Just wanted to share some tips from my childhood in Iran. I'm from Iran. I grew up in Tehran. One of the things that we do over there is we stay home between noon and 4:00 p.m. If you don't have to go out, you don't go out. I see people here going for a jog, like running in the park at high noon. It's something that nobody does there. You stay home. The other one is food. Some food we just stay away from during the summer, like things that you eat and immediately they make you warm, like potato chips, like donuts, junk foods. You just don't touch them. During the summer, it's mostly fruits and vegetables that don't make you warm.

Brian Lehrer: Very good. Glad you brought diet into it. Thank you, Neil. Here's one that came from our newsletter. We have a Brian Lehrer Show newsletter now, and you can sign up at WNYC.org/blnewsletter if you want to get it in your inbox every Thursday. We asked this question on the newsletter page yesterday, and Mike in Brooklyn wrote, "This one may be counterintuitive, but when it's brutally hot out, you don't want to wear shorts and a t-shirt, particularly if you're very light-skinned. When the sun's rays are directly on your skin, your body has to work really hard to keep you cool. Ever seen construction workers or landscapers in the summer? They're almost always wearing pants and long sleeves." At least for Mike and Brooklyn, not short sleeves and shorts.

Ken in the Village, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ken.

Ken: Hi. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes. You lived in Australia at one time, right?

Ken: Yes, I did. I went to Australia back in the '60s. I just came back from my first visit there in 60 years. I was very impressed. I told your person on the phone that you would be in a car in Queensland in this arid temperature, and they had these little hooks on the inside of the cars, and anybody that wanted to could hook a towel on those hooks. The towel was kept in a bucket of water and you hang it up there. I have adapted that to my own. I don't have air conditioning here in the West Village in my apartment. I live in Westbeth and it's pretty hot here. I have many fans and I put cloths on them. I have a spray bottle. I just keep them in the water. Then I hang them up and then they dry out. If I happen to wake up, I spray the towel and I'm cooled off marvelously.

Brian Lehrer: Good one, Ken. Thank you very much. I think Kris in Brooklyn might have another version of the same thing, would you say, Kris? Did you hear the last caller? Hi.

Kris: I do. Hi, Brian. Happy to be here. Yes, I work outside and I'm always trying to find ways to stay cool with a bandana around my neck and wiping off the sweat. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, we didn't have AC either. One of the best things that I found was wetting a washcloth, putting it in the freezer, letting it get all hard and crispy, and then I'd take it out of the freezer and draping it on different parts of my body and [unintelligible 00:08:15] . It was instantly cooling and fabulous. One of the best places to put it is right on your wrist. The wrist is your veins are so close to the surface that the cold water and air [inaudible 00:08:29].

Brian Lehrer: Your phone is breaking up, but I think I get the gist. You're another person saying water on your wrists. An earlier texter was saying run cold water from the sink on your wrist. You're saying you can even do it with that cold washcloth that you keep in the freezer. That's a good one. Here's one more from All Of It's related call-in yesterday. This is Nancy from Dover, New Jersey, who switched up her daily routine.

Nancy: I lived most of my life without air conditioning. I used to do my gardening at night. That was one thing. I would go out at night and then I would come in and watch Ice Station Zebra on TV or Doctor Zhivago, which I'm going to watch tonight. I felt myself transported into those scenes of blizzards and cold. It seemed to help at least psychologically cool me off a little bit.

Brian Lehrer: That's hilarious. Watching movies that take place in cold settings. Somebody writes, "I like to get cold foods when it's hot." Duh. Somebody else writes, "Drink warm or tepid beverages." Maybe you feel cool in comparison to that, I don't know. We're going to get one more. Matthew in Pennsylvania, you're on WNYC. Hi, Matthew.

Matthew: Hello. I open up the top windows on the top floor of the house during the day. We open all the time and close the bottom story windows in the morning, to keep the cool air in. Instead of getting a greenhouse effect on the top floor, and having all that hot air trapped, it just stays out. It only gets so hot in the house during the day.

Brian Lehrer: Matthew, thank you very much. Still thinking about that listener in Dover with the cold movies. Maybe we should crowdsource a list of cold setting movies for you to watch over the weekend, when it's going to be 95 today, 93 tomorrow, 95 on Sunday.

Thank you for all your hot weather tips. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen edits our National Politics podcast. Megan Ryan is the head of Live Radio. Our intern this summer is Sasha Linden Cohen. Juliana Fonda, Milton Ruiz, and today Matt Marando at the audio controls. Stay tuned for All Of It and have a great weekend, everybody.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.

Produced by WNYC