Trapped in the heat dome? Ten tips from a Texan

Since I can't fix global warming for you, here's some practical stuff that keeps me from getting too prickly during a heat wave.

An AI visualization of a heat dome. Not totally inaccurate, I guess?

Eleven years ago, when Obama was president and the world in general felt like a more welcoming place, I worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, a centrist-leaning non-profit organization that’s big on economics, meaning they advocate for climate change solutions that are scalable and even profitable. In the 1980s, for example, EDF helped solve acid rain via a cap-and-trade program, and then proposed it for greenhouse gases, too.

While at EDF, it felt like we were making progress. The endangered humpback whale in the back of my mind sounded a little less mournful, and I even overcame my reluctance to put a child into a very imperfect world. I got pregnant and became a mother. For a while good news continued: A year after I gave birth, I participated in the People’s Climate March, joining millions of other people who were tired of inaction. Then came the Paris Climate Accords. Things felt so poised to improve, in spite of past roadblocks.

Marching (and posing) at the People’s Climate March, a decade ago.

But then Trump got elected. He promptly withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement. Since then, it’s been a lot of bad news. Increasing emissions from China and India have negated progress made by the US and EU, where renewable energy has taken off. Meanwhile, the average global temperature still races upward in lockstep with heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. How I know it’s really bad: After resisting the idea for years, EDF is now even investing in geoengineering research, long considered a last-ditch effort.

Deep breath. I try to use positive psychology to be less prickly, but dang it, it’s hard to be chill about the state of the world when you’ve got a vicious heat rash behind your knees and we’re still burning fossil fuels. What will it be like when my daughter is my age? Will it regularly reach 116 degrees? 126? Where does it end?

Heat dome: Engaged

As I write this, a heat dome is locking into place over the Northeast. It won’t be as brutal or long as even a minor Texas heat wave, but given how vulnerable Northeasterners are to extreme heat, it will no doubt be deadly and at the very least, deeply uncomfortable.

And that’s perhaps one of the few ways I can be useful right now. As a Texan, I know heat, and whether I like it or not, I also know a few ways to make it less awful.

I thought about pitching these tips as a freelance piece, but I’m short on the time and energy. So here’s my top 10 heat dome tips for my fellow cacti:

1. If you commute: Wear gym clothes on the train (or in the sweltering car/bike ride/scooter), and change into office clothes at the office. I did this when I lived in NYC, sparing myself the grossness of sitting all day in wet clothes. (I work from home but often carry extra clothes for this reason. The older I get, the less I tolerate even brief spates of swamp ass.)

2. If your car has leather seats and you're wearing shorts (especially typical lady shorts): Put a towel down on your car seat to prevent your thighs from getting stuck to the seat. Or invest in a fabric car seat, a cooling car seat, or even a car with cooled seats—yes, those exist!

3. Keep a hand towel in the car in case your steering wheel or gear shifter is scorching to the touch. Bonus: You can also use the towel to wipe off sweat before it drips in your eyes and causes a crash! (Windshield sunshades help, but are often clunky to keep around and aren’t easy to wipe your face with.) Cooling towels can come in handy in this sitch, too.

4. An evening cold shower will cool you down remarkably fast, and you’ll end up not needing to crank the thermostat down as much. (I usually start my heat-wave showers at room temperature and gradually get them as cold as Barton Creek before exiting, refreshed and happy.)

5. For sleep, purchase a "cooling" blanket, which isn't really cool, it just doesn't trap heat like normal blankets. And use fans. I blast myself with both a ceiling fan and a floor fan. You can wet your skin to increase the cooling effect, but this only works if you have something like a fan to evaporate the moisture.

6. Antiperspirant can be used in places other than armpits. You don’t need to buy a special brand for your underboobs, no matter what the advertisements say.

7. USB-powered desktop fans boost the breeze without annoying office mates or making video calls too noisy.

   

   My little desktop fan helps me cut back on A/C use in my home office.

8. Outdoor events (or any sweltering scenarios) are made more tolerable when you can bring an insulated water bottle with a mister feature (or a spray bottle) packed with icy water.

9. Many medications affect body temperature, making it harder to cool down or stay hydrated. Make sure you know if you’re taking this kind of medication (even OTC anthistamines fall into this category!) and plan accordingly.

10. Avoid eating heated foods and spicy stuff, despite their deliciousness (although some spices are cooling). Adjust your grocery list, and go for smoothies, salads, cheese/fruit plates, cereal-as-dinner, and ice cream.

Bonus tip for book lovers! I really like reading about doomed polar journeys in the summer. I recommend Endurance about Shackleton’s insane Antarctic crossing as well as In the Kingdom of Ice about a failed Arctic exploration where they resorted to eating not you-know-what but you-know-who. The Indifferent Stars Above also slaps, in spite of it taking place in California.

Thanks for reading. If you’ve got any tips or favorite polar adventure books involving desperate acts of cannibalism, please do share. I could use as many possible! While it’s actually not terrible in Texas yet, it’s only a matter of time.

Disclosure: A small portion of this newsletter originally appeared in an essay I wrote called Harry the Heat Wave, in which I nearly lose my mind during a 2022 Texas heat dome and drought.