Steps to Beat the Heat
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1Identify Those at High Risk from HeatIt may be you, family or friends. Prepare and check in when heat hits
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In 2021, a heat dome subjected our area to three days of temperatures well over 100 degrees. The image above shows the actual temperatures around the region during that heat event (from weather.gov/seattle). With most houses lacking air conditioning, residents are at risk from high heat, and communities need to plan for how to manage the next time overwhelming heat reaches us.
Step 1
Identify Who Might Be at High Risk from Heat
If you or someone you know is in one of these groups, take extra precautions to stay cool, drink water, and take breaks from the heat:
- Older adults (65 and older).
- Young children.
- People with chronic health conditions or mental illness.
- Athletes who exercise outdoors.
- Outdoor workers.
- People living unsheltered or homeless.
Step 2
Reducing Exposure to Heat and Risk During High Heat Events
- Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water or other fluids.
- Seek out air-conditioned buildings (such as malls, movie theaters, or libraries).
- Find shade and avoid direct contact with the sun.
- Reduce physical activity and do outdoor activities in the cooler morning or evening hours.
- Cool your body by wearing a wet scarf, bandana, or shirt. Take a cool shower.
- Never leave infants, children, or pets in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked open. A vehicle can act like a solar-heated sauna and it only takes a few minutes for severe medical problems and even death to occur.
- Eat light meals. Avoid hot and heavy meals because they will add heat to your body.
- Check on at-risk friends, family, and neighbors.
Reduce Household Heat:
If you don’t have air conditioning — and many in the Pacific Northwest do not — here are a few things you can do to mitigate the heat in your home.
Block the sun with shades, open the shades at night.
Curtains and shades can keep your home from heating up. But at night, when lights are out (and if you don’t need them for privacy), keep the shades open to let the windows release heat.
Trap heat with closed doors.
If one room gets hotter than other parts of the home, close the doors to keep the heat trapped in that room.
Turn off the lights.
Lights generate heat. Only keep on the lights you need.
Limit your electronics use.
Home electronics heat up the home, so turn off electronics you aren’t using. Reduce the time you spend using computers, video games, TVs, and other electronics.
Use your oven or stove less.
Cooking with heat increases the temperature inside your home.
Put a bowl of ice under a fan.
The fan can circulate air cooled by the ice.
Hang space blankets over windows.
Emergency survival wraps (the silver ones known as “space blankets”) work well to reflect the heat and typically cost around a dollar at drug stores, outdoor suppliers, or online. You can use painter’s tape to keep them up and block out the heat.
Step 3
Once Heat Strikes
Learn the difference between heat exhaution
and heat stroke and where to look for more help
Heat exhaution can cause dizziness, thirst, heavy sweating, nausea and weakness.
Move the vistim to a cooler area, loosen clothing, have them sip cool water, and seek help if symptoms don’t improve.
Heat stroke is a medical emergency that can cause death or permanent disabilty if not treated. Victims may progress to dizziness with confusion, or unconsciousness. Call 911.
Get More Information
Public Health – Seattle & King County hot weather advice pages:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides this video to talk through hot weather risks and what to do about them:
youtu.be/Lt_1scHBI3w
You can consult this heat safety checklist from the American Red Cross:
https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/get-help/pdfs/heat/EN_Extreme-Heat-Safety-Checklist.pdf