For some reason, I always end up in the warmest regions of Europe at the warmest time. You can count on me to be in Malta in the middle of August, in Firenze at the height of July; I studied in the Canary Islands, where I once saw the beach thermometer hit 50°c (122°F), and somehow, I never suffered from the heat in those places as I do in Belgium. Here’s why, and more importantly, what to do about it based on my observations in warmer countries.
The Science of Heat Transfer, or Why The North of Europe is Royally F*ucked in Case of Heat Wave
For heat transfer to happen, there needs to be a difference in temperature—that is, a hotter body and a colder one. What makes it so hard to keep liveable temperatures in our houses regardless of the season is that heat transfer always happens from the hotter body (the one with the higher temperature) to the colder one (the one with the lower temperature). This means that (A) in the winter, you have to keep the heat inside your house, and (B) in the summer, you have to keep it outside.
Most houses here are not built to do both, and in northern Europe, where it is normal to live in 100-year-old houses, the heat-keeping features of a building were generally favoured over the potential heat-removing ones. For the sake of this exercise, I have compared the average summer temperatures in Uccle1Uccle is the oldest meteorological station in Belgium and is the only point in the country where climate data has been collected consistently since 1833. (near Brussels) in 1920 (the year my house was built) and in 2021 (the last available complete data set).
| Month | 1920 | 2021 | ∆ |
| July | 15.9°C (59°F) | 21.9°C (68.8°F) | +6° C (+9.8°F) |
| August | 14.3°C (57.2°F) | 20.7°C (68°F) | +6.4° C (+10.8°F) |
| September | 13.7°C (55.4°F) | 16.6°C (60.8°F) | +2.9° C (+5.4°F) |
The problem isn’t just the average temperature either. In 2020, for example, the highest temperatures recorded were respectively 36.5°C (96.8°F) in July, 35.9°C (95°F) in August, and 34.3°C (93.2°F) in September. This year, not even two weeks into July, the temperature on my weather station has already hit 34.1°C (93.2°F) this afternoon. These are anecdotal figures, of course, but they do paint a picture that informs us as to why houses built in the 1920s are terribly ill-suited to our 2022 temperatures.
There are two more factors to consider when it comes to north European houses and high temperatures, namely:
- Traditionally, our houses are made of bricks, which are proper heat traps. If at the end of a hot summer day, you come close to the façade of a brick house, you’ll feel the heat radiating from it.
- Hot air goes up, and like idiots, we collectively decided at some point in our history that the second and third floors would be the perfect spots where to put our bedrooms. Because of course, we build vertically due to a lack of ground space in cities.
Additionally, most of us do not have air conditioning at home for three main reasons. One, it is ridiculously expensive to buy an A/C in Europe; two, it’s just not the done thing, and three, we don’t want to contribute to global warming by using energy to facilitate heat exchange in order to counteract the effects of global warming.
Plus, because we really are a bunch of lucky bastards, Europe is warming faster than the global average. So that’s where we’re at.
Windows and blinds
I first observed when I was a child in Portugal that every house I saw had external window shutters made of wood. Sure, in Belgium many houses had rolling shutters, but something felt different when I entered someone’s house in the middle of summer in Portugal than when I did the same in Belgium. That was because 1) the Portuguese actually use their shutters throughout the day, and 2) their houses are much more adapted to heat than ours, as they experience warmer temperatures for longer periods of time than we do. Using blinds, shutters, or any other type of light insulation helps tremendously with keeping the heat out; more importantly, and rather counter-intuitively, you need to keep your windows shut.
Principles
Again, it’s all about heat transfer. If it is colder in your house than it is outside, the heat will try to get in there, so you have to keep it out. Conversely, the minute it is colder outside than it is inside, the heat that’s inside will try to go out. Your job is to counteract this principle in the first case and help it in the second. Plus, part of the energy of the light radiated by the sun is absorbed by materials and warms them, so you’d better keep light at bay too.
In Practice
- Keep the windows, shutters, and blinds shut during the warmer hours. I know you want the air to circulate, but you’ll only manage to help the hot air in if you do.
- Open the windows as soon as the outside temperature is lower than the temperature in your house.
- Always have the windows that are exposed to the sun covered. For example, I close the shutter of my window that faces the east in the morning and that of the window that faces the west in the afternoon.
Material
- I like to use my very simple weather station that has a sensor outside and another one inside because it helps me know exactly when to open and close the windows and shutters, but honestly, a pair of thermometers will do the same job. It’s just that the nerd in me loves all the shiny symbols and little animations.
- Something, anything to cover your windows as long as it is opaque: shutters, blinds, curtains, drapes, cardboard, magazines, etc. It really doesn’t matter if it is ugly. I’ve read somewhere that red and orange curtains were more efficient in bouncing off light because of their lower index of refraction, but I don’t believe that the difference in temperature is all that significant.
Water is your best friend
Look, I don’t mean to throw shade (get it, get it?), but if you’re an adult who chooses not to drink water because you “don’t like the taste of it”, you’re not quirky; you’re an idiot and you need to grow the f*ck up, like, yesterday. Water is crucial for your body, including your brain. It delivers nutrients to your cells, keeps your joints in good shape, and generally prevents you from catching any and every infection that feels like taking your immune system for a spin. Crucially, water is instrumental in regulating your body temperature because it helps dissipate heat. In other words, you need to sweat, and you cannot sweat without water. I mean, you can—but you’ll suffer many unpleasant effects, including but not limited to a rather painful death. If on the other hand, you’re a water drinker, you probably know what follows.
Principles
It is difficult to tell how much water each individual should drink because there are many factors that may affect the volume of fluids needed, such as sex, age, level of activity, weight, climate, etc. That being said, it is a good rule of thumb not to wait to feel thirsty before drinking water. Also if under normal circumstances, your urine is any shade darker than a pale yellow, it’s time to chug down a couple of glasses. And of course, when the weather is warmer, you need to increase your water intake.
Interestingly, not all of your water intake has to come from drinking water. It is estimated that about 20% of our water needs can be covered by the food we eat, especially fruit and vegetables. This is good news, because, in the summer, we have plenty of those. Think of a nice Greek salad, for example, with its cucumbers and tomatoes; that’s water. I’m also partial to a good gazpacho. Add some watermelon for dessert, and you’re good to go. If you also drink 1.5L to 2L (6 to 8 cups) of water throughout the day, that is.
In Practice
- Drinks lots of water, more than you’d usually drink when there isn’t a heat wave.
- Stay away from sugary and alcoholic drinks. Both raise your body temperature.
- It might be a good idea to stay away from coffee too unless you’re completely immune to its effects, in which case I wonder why you still bother drinking it.
- Eat fruit and vegetables. They’re rich in fluids.
Water isn’t just for drinking
- Spray yourself with water regularly. I keep one of those Evian spray bottles in the fridge and generously spray myself whenever I think of it. A plant mister will achieve the same result.
- Footbaths! I’ve been known to fill a bucket with cold water and leave my feet in there while I watched the X-Files and ate a Cornetto. I’m truly living my best life.
- Don’t towel dry yourself when leaving the shower. Instead, just squeegee the water and go stand in front of the fan. Trust me, you’ll never feel more glorious about yourself than standing there naked and dripping.
- When it comes to cooling down, a kiddie pool will absolutely produce the same effect as a full-size one.
Spanish wisdom
It might be because I have spent more time in Spain than in any other warmer country, but I’ve always admired the practicality of the Spanish approach to heat, in particular in Andalucía and the Canary Islands. Not only are their houses literally built to mitigate the effects of heat transfer, but they have also developed a whole lifestyle that makes life with heat much more bearable. I’m thinking of the way they schedule their lives much differently than we do, and in particular of the way they conceive meals and rest.
Meals
The Spanish eat their dinner late, and they’re entirely right. In a curious experiment that she conducted in 1977, Anne Scott Beller noticed that the temperature difference between a dog that had been fed and one that had not eaten, in the same room and at the same time varied “as much as one full degree F” (0.6°C). She concluded that the difference was due to the specific dynamic action of food being digested. A 1993 study, this time on American Army men, showed that heat impairs appetite. The conclusions of that study were that when working in hot environments, allowances should be made to the personnel’s diet, more particularly reducing intake and making room for shifts in food preferences. And when it comes to common sense, if it’s good enough for the US Army, it’s good enough for me.
In a few words: eat small portions, and avoid eating your big meal at lunch. Unless you have the whole afternoon ahead to turn the event into a good session of sobremesa, which I recommend wholeheartedly. Otherwise, eat small stuff, and take the time to eat it. Again, fresh fruit and vegetables are the way to go here. In my house, we regularly renounce heavier dishes in favour of pinchos, tapas, or mezze of all sorts. And it has happened to me more often than not to replace dinner with l’aperitivo in Italy (look, I’m sure I’m not the only one). Many cultures have a tradition of finger food or snack food, so the summer might be the best time for you to become adventurous in the kitchen2Get your mind out of the gutter, silly sausage! and try all sorts of small bites. Eat later, when it is a little cooler.
Siesta
While in my experience the Spanish siesta has turned into a tired stereotype more than it is an actual cultural practice, it doesn’t mean that some people wouldn’t still enjoy a good nap if they were allowed to (and if, say, capitalism hadn’t caught up with everyone everywhere)—and it certainly doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take a nap if you can.
True, not everyone needs a nap, and not everyone will experience the same benefits of taking one (science is still very much investigating the potential drawbacks and benefits of an afternoon snooze) but it doesn’t cost much to try, especially when it is very warm outside, and all the more if the temperature doesn’t go low enough at night.
The optimal room temperature for a good night’s sleep is 18.3°C (65°F), which does not happen during a heat wave. Last night, the temperature in our bedroom never went lower than 25°C (77°F), which is pure torture for me as I’d much rather sleep in temperatures closer to 14°C (57.2°F) with the windows open. Unfortunately, that’s but a distant dream, and sleeping with the window open to help the colder air circulate at night (remember heat transfer?) comes with the non-negligible downside that you welcome all the outside noises to mess with your sleep pattern.
So take a nap, if only to escape the warmest hours of the day (preferably in the shade; don’t fall asleep in your backyard then come complaining that you’re burnt to a crisp) if you’re lucky enough to work flexible hours and maybe catch up with your tasks in the evening.
Material
- A dark opaque silk sleep mask. Something that’s soft, comfortable, breathable, but more importantly, something that blocks out light completely. I bought mine from a local store and splurged a little (read: it was almost €10) and it was my best investment of the year.
- Earplugs.
- This is pure luxury, but hear me out: a hammock. I love my hammock. I don’t know how I managed to live without one. Everyone should own a hammock.
Bonus: Go sit under a tree
I’ve noticed a five-degree Celsius difference between the empty lot next to my house and my own backyard. Why? Because my backyard is covered in trees and the owner of the plot decided to have his cut down. Trees are full of moisture and they provide shade. Go sit under a tree, you’ll see.
What do you do to fight the heat? What’s your finest tip to keep cool during a heat wave? Let me know in the comments!
Please bear in mind that these are short-time and individual solutions. In the long run, the phenomenon of heat waves is going to amplify in Europe. In a just world, our governments would take the appropriate measures to ensure the conservation of our planet and of its inhabitants—wherever they live—, hold big polluters to account, and plant trees in city centres, along the roads, and wherever it is possible to reforest and create new woodlands.
All texts and pictures ©Ms. Unexpected.
- 1Uccle is the oldest meteorological station in Belgium and is the only point in the country where climate data has been collected consistently since 1833.
- 2Get your mind out of the gutter, silly sausage!