Hello Ants,
Yes, I'm alive, just not very active here as distracted with other things. =) My company had me run my 'emergency preparedness: evacuation basics' presentation a couple months ago ahead of forest fire season, so I feel I've done my annual community service sharing of perspective. I was blocked from doing so during last summer's fire season as mgt was concerned about alarmism (we can skip cutting up that one, pretty sure we're all on the same page!)
A new angle to preparedness it hitting my radar with 'climate change': heat! While my area tends to get only a week or two of hot weather per summer, this is clearly changing. It has been 30C or greater for 4 days in a row this week alone, and today is to hit 35C which is highly unusual. After work the wife & I are driving to another city...forecast to hit 39C/102F. I've only a couple times been in 35C much less 39!
I thought to post here today as it occurs to me on our 4 hour drive I can expect to see drivers unprepared for this, identified by overheated engines & blown tires. Checked my wife's tires the other day and they were at 40psi vs. desired 34. Will be checking mine before driving and during to ensure they stay 5psi short of maximum pressure. However, I doubt everyone is mindful of how much their tire pressure changes with the air/road temp..!
Other than keeping on top of general maintenance, coolant, tire pressure, gas, coolant levels (& backups in prep bin in back) and keeping water in vehicle for the drive, what might you advise to be covered in overly hot situations? Will also be dressed for sweating + Tilly hat and have AC in vehicle.
Tangent to this is apartment temp control of course; last summer my wife cancelled her veto of my building the unfashionable Evictor fan setup in our living room: https://imgur.com/gallery/H1W3CGV Using this and selecting the 'replacement' air source makes a huge difference for our space. Our building has banned window-shaker AC units, though our (less efficient, arg) portable unit cools the bedroom effectively (too loud to sleep with).
As suitable I'll wear a gel water-soaked headband to use the conductive & evaporative principles (low humidity here), wet my shins in front of a fan, and keep a level mood to not generate extra body heat. Eating frozen fruit helps as well, and eating certain foods that require less effort to digest.
I'm curious to all of your heat-fighting tactics! Please share!
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