Quick cool tips on how to survive a heat wave

How much heat can the human body possibly take?

What’s excruciatingly hot for us? Remember 2010, when temperature hit a 50-year-high with Jalgaon in Maharashtra crossing 49 degrees? No. India has seen more: the highest so far has been 50.6 degrees at Alwar, Rajasthan, in May 1956.

Apparently, that’s not enough to make us one of the most spectacular hotspots in the world. At least, we haven’t seen temperature going up to 71 degrees, as it did at the salt deserts of Dasht-e Lut, Iran, in 2005. Or 69.3 degrees as in Queensland, Australia, in 2003. Or even neighbour Pakistan’s 2010 record, when temperature soared to 53.7 degrees at Mohenjo-daro — one of the warmest temperatures ever recorded in the world. So how much heat can you tolerate?

As much as your genes allow. Heat tolerance is coded in your genes. The mechanism goes back to human evolution over 1.7 million years, when humans started coming out of forested areas into open grassy lands. To survive the heat and to keep cool, our ancestors started losing body hair. A genetic adaptation for survival — just as bipedalism, a prominent nose, a large brain, and the ability to speak are.

There’s more: people who are tall, slim and slender tolerate heat better. They have more skin to perspire. Woe be unto those who are fat: they have less skin surface for their weight. Read more here.