Hot Weather · Reference · Basic
Cool Your Body When the Air Is Hot
Evaporation is the only free air conditioning you have — how to use it, and when it stops working.
This is for educational purposes only. Not professional medical, electrical, or safety advice.
- 01
Wet skin plus moving air
Cooling only happens when water evaporates off you. Wet the neck, wrists, armpits and groin, then stand in a breeze or fan. That's the whole mechanism.
- 02
The wet shirt method
Soak a cotton shirt, wring it out, wear it, re-wet every 20–30 minutes. Works while the air is drier than your skin; in humid air it helps less.
- 03
Foot bath cooling
Feet in a basin of cool water with a fan across the surface cools the whole body surprisingly fast and costs almost no water.
- 04
Build a double shade roof
Two tarps with an air gap between them, or a tarp over a leaf layer. The gap carries the hot air away — a single tarp on your head is a hot tent.
- 05
Get off hot ground
Asphalt and bare dirt radiate heat all evening. Sit and sleep on grass, wood, a pallet or a raised cot, out of the reflected glow.
- 06
Know when evaporation fails
In very humid air, sweat can't evaporate and fans barely help. Then the levers are water, shade, rest and cool water on the skin — not exertion.
- 07
Drink on a schedule
About a quart an hour in hard heat, with salt or ORS rather than plain water alone. Thirst arrives too late to prevent heat illness.