Indian here, so experienced with hot climate.

• Wear loose cotton clothes (long-sleeved if stepping out in the hot sun)
• Keep yourself hydrated.
• Avoid soft/ aerated drinks/ soda & coffee as they'll dehydrate you. Stick to cool water, ice chips, fresh lemonade made with water, fresh fruit juices, melons, spinach-cucumber-onion-tomato salads, yoghurt,
• Eat light.
• Stick to well-ventilated rooms with good air-circulation (fans help)
• Cold water showers to cool down
• Sweating is good. It'll cool you down. This is also why Indians eat spicy food and drink hot tea even in hottest summer. Get sweaty then take a quick cold-water rinse.
• If you have to step outside in the hot sun, umbrella, hats, caps etc are your friends.
• Wet towel on the back of the neck for a quick cool down.

ETA: When it gets so hot that we lose our appetite, then our go-to meal is to mix up cooled cooked rice with unsweetened yoghurt and a pinch of salt. its variously called yoghurt rice/ curd rice/ thayir saadam / dahi bhaath / dahi chaawal . This is an easy to make & easy to diges meal that is guaranteed to cool a person down.

thayir = dahi = curd = yoghurt
saada = bhaath = chaawal = cooked rice

Good luck.

I do construction work in Alabama. I basically bitch and complain all summer long and hate every second of it. There's no relief unless you're in the AC. I've been thinking of ordering a liquid cooled vest actually. They look weird but I'll try anything. The humidity here is killer. Sweating doesn't help like it does in dry climates. Every time I walk outside my body shuts down and I have literally no energy. I think i had a heat stroke last summer.

If someone above me tells me to go work outside all day and doesn't offer me a substantial amount of money, I tell them to go fuck themselves. It isn't worth it.

Close the windows, curtains and shades during the day, at around 8-9AM. When it's very warm outside, open windows are your enemy.

Open windows, curtains and shades during the night when temperature is lowering.

Most heat gets in through windows facing the sun. I cover the worst with aluminium foil (tin foil).

Also bans all the evil rays! Pew pew pew…

AZ here, Get a cheap low power desktop for work shit, it will heat up less and you'll be able to ventilate it better.

Otherwise, a/c, thermal curtains, insulated reflector layer in front of that, make sure your weather seals on your doors are good. Drink water all the time, carry water with you all the time. Good luck with all the heatwaves and welcome to the club.

Brazilian here, to be fair I've read so many good tricks here that I am not sure what I have to contribute, but yeah, light clothes with bright colours or white, don't dress dark as your clothes you heat up. No shoes if you can, but also not barefeet lol sandals and flip flops havaianas styles. If you live close to the beach obviously go take a swim, otherwise swimming pool or AC at home or car or go to store random stores with AC too lol. Drink cold stuff, keep hydrated. Fans, and cold shower.

Sleep during mid-day

Houses are built differently in hot areas. Very few windows facing south. Shutters on all windows. All windows deeply recessed. Channel the wind, ie have a deep through channel that spans across the house so any pressure differential causes air to exchange. Tiled floors. No/low insulation.

In Northern Europe, we live in sweat boxes designed for letting in maximum light and keeping heat inside the house.

The one thing I don't see mentioned enough for keeping your apartment cool is to close all windows and draw all curtains during the day and open them when the temperature outside is lower than that inside (normally ~an hour after sunset).

Heat reflects off all surface, so it's not just about keeping light out.

Blinds on the outside of your windows help significantly too.

If the dew point is favorable at least, then drinking Hot Coffee and let myself sweat in front of an Electric Fan. If it is very humid, Ice on neck or taking a cold shower.

If I had to go outside or Air conditioning at the office broke, then I'd wear light clothing where sweat is easier to evaporate

Otherwise, I'd just use air conditioning and eat up the electricity cost, fuck this weather.

When I lived in a top floor apartment in Melbourne, where it regularly hit 40°C without any air-conditioning (still unsure how that was and is legal to rent out), I would use a spray bottle of water and a fan to evaporatively cool myself, cold showers to lower my body heat and trips to an air-conditioned space like the cinema or shopping centre during the worst of it.

No mention of wet headcloths and neckerchiefs here! Get some water on that neckerchief and it’ll drip down the hotter parts of your body. A wet headcloth loosely draped under a hat or headband catches the wind and sends evaporative cooling down your back, and gives you cooler air to breathe.

There’s a reason why deserts around the world are filled with garments like the keffiyeh, pashmina, shemagh, pañuelo, and cowboy scarf. I’ve spent a lot of time in the outdoors with a kufiya from the Hirbawi factory in Palestine, they’re well-made and amazingly handy. Their story is worth reading at http://www.hirbawi.ps .

In the southern US we have air conditioning everywhere. People avoid going outside except for very early or late in the day when the sun isn't on you. I try to get any yard work or anything outside down before 10am and avoid going outside the rest of the day.

Yesterday was actually a "nice" day where I'm at because the high was "only" 34C. People were outside enjoying it, but still avoided the sun and were mostly out in the morning and afternoon in shaded areas.

When the weather hits 40⁰ around here I might head to the cinema. They're usually really well temperature controlled, dark and allows you to get out of the sun when it's at its height. Nights when it doesn't cool down are harder.

fan and cooler during dry heat, onlyfans during humid heat after rain, get cotton vest for upper body and cotton bermuda shorts, get external keyboard and a laptop stand with fans for laptop.

This stuff is unbearable, I can’t even play video games on my laptop, because it warms up very fast and the keyboard becomes uncomfortable for me to use.

There's a lot of good advice in here but I haven't seen anyone tell you to just reduce the amount of heat being generated in your home. Almost every plugged in electrical device in your home is generating some amount of heat. Esp. if they're in use.

So my suggestion to you is to flip off the power-strip or unplug unnecessary devices, and find something else to occupy your time. The consoles, PCs, the tv itself, they're all hungry devices that generate a lot of heat. Those fans people are telling you to use? They generate heat too... so while I'm not saying, "don't use a fan to stay cool", I am saying, "don't fill your home with running fans in rooms you aren't in".

Lots of fans.

Have central air conditioning in all buildings.

Have a place to swim.

I'm in the US and it was 40C (104F) yesterday, which is normal for my area. I spent the whole day either indoors or in the neighborhood pool, and it was perfectly comfortable.

I'm from eastern europe too, I feel like I almost died from the august 2020 heat, this year I couldn't belive my eyes seeing 37°C on the weather app last week(and continues to rise). The hail mary was fans for me, but air conditioning is something that will get harder to live without as years roll by and the temperature increases. I know I'm not the intended audience, but what worked for me was spending more time in rooms where the sun doesn't hit as much(for me it's the bathroom), standing near walls(I noticed they don't catch a lot of heat and they are not too cold to lean on), every few hours try to splash some water on your face and neck and maybe(I don't know if this works, didn't try it) towels that are wet and were left a bit in the fridge(I'd avise much caution with temperature change to avoid termic shock, for the towel too not be too cold and the body too warm). Hydrate and avoid going outside mid day as much as possible. Summer gets easier when you work in an air conditioned office, but until then, good luck and drink water.

If AC isnt an option, the way Ive gotten through summers without is opening one window on one side of the building, then another one on the opposite side. Then point a box fan facing outward of one window, and do your best to seal the gaps with some cardboard or whatever you have. This will create negative pressure in the building, drawing in a bunch of air from the opposite window.

People have already mentioned wet towels on your neck but I would add, if you can, cold wraps for your legs: wet towels around your calves.

Avoid being out in the midday sun. If you do, try to walk in the shade as much as possible.

If your windows have external shades close them down when the sun is hitting that side of the house/appartment so that the heating up of objects from the sunlight happens outside not inside.

Wear shorts/skirts and loose clothes of thin textites that don't retain much heat (such as cotton).

If you're going to be out for long periods, bring water, ideally cold water.

Sure, if you have AC or, even better, a swiming pool, it's a lot easier to keep cool, but these suggestions will work even for those who can't afford those things.

Here's what I do, dampen a towel and put it in the freezer. Once the towel is good and cold wear it like a cape. Looks kinda stupid but you'll stay cool.

Use fans. Air blowing on you will make you feel cooler. If you don't have air conditioning some houses can benefit from one fan blowing inwards from the cool/shady side of the house and one fan blowing outwards on the hot/sunny side of the house.

Try to do outdoor things early in the morning or late in the evening. If you need to be outdoors during the hottest parts of the day stay in the shade, wear sunscreen, move more slowly, drink plenty of water.

Ever since I started riding (motorcycles) I don't even really notice it anymore. Anything less hot than "armored jacket and helmet under the sun" just doesn't register as hot anymore

I live in the desert so its usually a dry heat so I get to use a evaporative/swamp cooler. It uses way less electricity than the AC. I just have to crack open a few windows across the house and turn on a fan in the hallway and it gets quite cool and doesn't get too humid inside. It hit 110ºF (43ºC) today and it never got above 72ºF (22ºC) inside.

I'm late to this party because I'm on the other side of the planet in a sub-tropical climate. I agree with the commenter from India and want to add:

• if you have a cotton cap / beanie / soft hat, get it out Wet it, wring it out, and put it in your freezer in roughly the right shape for your head. Use whatever is in the freezer to shape it, then let it freeze. Remove from freezer, put it in your head, and thank me for the brief but blessed relief.

• Wear a light cotton long sleeve top. Wet the sleeves and stand or sit in front of a fan or in a breezy spit in the shade. It's like air conditioning for your skin.

• Wet your head for instant relief. Your wet hair will help keep you cool for longer.

• Plan your day around the heat. If you have to go out, do it as early in the day as you can to avoid the heat. Stay in the shade as much as possible, but somewhere with good air flow