Forget fall fashion: What to wear in extreme heat
Fall fashion may be appearing on department store racks, but now is not the time to be donning warmer clothes. Extreme heat is sweeping the nation and what you wear and how you dress can mean the difference between staying healthy or staying in a hospital.
New fabrics and wearable technologies can help keep you cool — and looking cool, too. Take Dri-Fit or CoolMax. These patented materials accelerate breathability and evaporation — two major considerations in keeping you cool. Wicking moisture from the skin and allowing air to distribute more evenly across your skin’s surface can help you stay cooler and keep your body temperature from rising into the hyperthermia range.
Hyperthermia is when your body exceeds its normal temperature and begins to deteriorate. Heat cramps, heat exhaustion and, ultimately, heat stroke can set in. Heatstroke is a serious condition that can lead to death. Even just a couple of degrees’ rise in body temperature can make you ill.
Your skin is responsible for about 90% of your body’s heat-dissipating ability through sweating. But evaporation has to occur for sweat to do its job effectively. Cooling evaporation allows superficial vessels to brings cooler blood back to your body’s core. This counteracts a rise in your body’s temperature.
Clothing manufacturers have identified solutions to help your body maintain its temperature balance. Startup companies such as Qore Performance have even designed wearable solutions that target key areas of the body to cool them. Qore has merged first aid science and apparel, making accessories that offload excess heat produced by your body during activity and extreme temperatures.
There are numerous other advanced fabrics and technologies, such as Gore-Tex and HeatGear that specifically address body heat. And these aren’t just for athletes. Thanks in part to the popularity of leisure clothing, or activewear, breathable technology has made its way into apparel you can wear outside the gym or off the court.
Seersucker, linen, and cotton are still acceptable lightweight materials for summer clothing as they allow air to circulate onto your skin. But 21st-century materials that have been lab tested and constructed specifically for high temperatures are far superior options. Some fabrics even feature ultraviolet blockers that protect us from the sun’s radiation.
If shopping isn’t your thing, or in your budget, there are some things you should keep in mind when dressing for hot days:
• Wear loose-fitting and light-colored items.
• Cover as much as your skin as possible to ward off the sun’s radiation.
• Avoid dark-colored clothing as it attracts and retains heat.
• Put on a wide-brimmed hat to protect your head and face from the sun’s rays.
• Freeze some washcloths and put them on the back of your neck in super hot weather.
When you wash your clothes, you should keep your dryer vents clean and clear. Clogged vents push more hot air back into your home and can pose a fire hazard.
With temperatures expected to soar into the triple digits in southern California and other parts of the country this weekend, watch more than thermostat readings — look at what you’re wearing.
Thomas M. Kostigen is the founder of TheClimateSurvivalist.com and a New York Times best-selling author and journalist. He is the National Geographic author of "The Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover" and the NG Kids book " Extreme Weather: Surviving Tornadoes, Tsunamis, Hailstorms, Thundersnow, Hurricanes and More!" Follow him @weathersurvival, or email kostigen@theclimatesurvivalist.com.
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