Been there; done that. I keep a poly fleece jacket in the truck for movie theaters and doctor's offices. Then again I've taken friends on summer camping trips who seem to spend all their time in AC and they suffered. Ironic that people come down to Florida 'for the weather' and then stay inside with the AC cranked so low they could hang meat.

Seems to be a common theme with humanity. The story is that Arizona used to be valued as a destination for allergy sufferers because it had few flowers and low pollen counts. OF course as soon as the people moved there the first thing they do was plant flowers. I'm told that in much of Arizona the pollen count is about what it is in the rest of the country.



I've seen people try to cool off using 'swamp coolers'. These units push air over a water saturated absorbent material. The idea is to force evaporation of the water and drop the temperature. Problem is that if you blow air at 100% humidity over water the water has no place to go and the temperature doesn't drop.

Same with sweat. At 100% humidity sweat doesn't evaporate and you stay wet and hot. Dry heat isn't bad. Wet heat is like living in a plastic bag. In a high humidity situation you lose more heat by radiation and convection than evaporation. The working solution is to get naked so the sweat falls off and body is free to radiate heat. Staying in the shade to avoid direct heat and keeping the air moving so you to shed heat faster.

The other thing people need to learn is to slow down. Try to do too much too fast and you overheat and fall out. A slow, measured pace gets more done in the long run.

Working construction over 100F and 100% humidity we went to a 20/20/20 system. Twenty minutes working heavy physical labor, twenty resting in the shade, twenty minutes light work. Even then during the 1200 to 1400 time period we pretty much eliminated the heavy physical labor part if it was in the sun.

Fold-up 12' by 12' shade pavilions are very handy to keep the sun at bay. If you have a choice get one in a light color with vent in the peak of the roof. Place a large jug of ice water and a industrial size fan under it and you have a workable cooling station. Keep one of these set up close to all the work locations and work in shifts and you can get a lot done without anyone falling out.

I've seen too many guys, it is almost always guys, who try to 'tough it out' get laid low by heat. If you think setting up and maintaining a cooling station is expensive try paying for a couple of serious cases of genuine heat stroke.

Myth: You can send someone into shock if you cool them off too fast. This is false. Having ice dumped on you is not comfortable in normal conditions but most people barely feel it if they are dangerously overheated.

If someone is suffering heat stroke don't hesitate to cool them off as fast as possible because their brain is literally cooking. Packing the groin, neck and armpits in ice is the best way to cool them. If they get to the point they need it they are usually only semi-conscious and won't feel it much. Once iced down transport them with the ice in place. Generally there is no need to worry about frostbite or hypothermia if transport can be accomplished in ten or fifteen minutes.