Do you know the symptoms of heat stroke in your pets? Well, maybe you should, as Germany is expecting the hottest day of the year today. And not only in Germany are the temperatures high, Great Britain is being crushed by the heat. It can get hotter than 40 degrees Celsius today, flights were canceled yesterday because of the heat in London, and rail traffic is sometimes paralyzed because the rails are deformed. Britain doesn’t seem really prepared.
It’s different in Australia, where it can quickly get well over 40 degrees. To ensure that the British get through the heat wave safely, some Australians have collected all their knowledge, put together tips and written them on the Internet. Some of these seem very helpful (for example, that you should google your pets’ heat stroke symptoms), some are a bit irritating, others are at least scientifically dubious. And some are just plain funny.
The Australian Embassy in London shared seven “tips to beat the heat” on Twitter, recalling an Australian anti-skin cancer campaign from the 1980s entitled “Slip slop slap“. A seagull named Sid with a slight speech impediment sings that you should slip on a shirt (slip), slap on sunscreen (slop) and slap a hat on your head (slap).
The tweet by a historian in particular caused a great response. It’s aimed at the English who don’t have air conditioning at home, which is probably true for most.
As a “real Australian”, she recommends that the English, in addition to the obvious advice, drink plenty of water and fill spray bottles with water, which you (and your pets!) can use to cool off from time to time. It’s best to wear long, airy clothes outside and also apply lotion underneath. If you need more cooling, you should put a wet towel in the freezer or put your feet in cold water. And if none of that works anymore, ice cubes under the armpits could help.
She and other Australians also recommend closing windows and curtains all day to cool the home. However, this is highly controversial, since the humidity in the rooms increases quickly and it can then be very dangerous, especially for old people. Weather expert Jörg Kachelmann, for example, has been calling out for years when it gets hot: Open the windows!
There are also from the Philippines advices for England: curtains closed, windows open (!), not moving between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and then falling asleep around 2 p.m. in front of the fan and television.
But not everyone likes the tips for the heat-stricken English people – especially in Australia. 40 degrees, comments say, that’s not even a heat wave in Australia, the English shouldn’t be so fussy and install air conditioning instead. A users asks how the British managed to control so much southern territory during the Empire period.
Some English people, on the other hand, refer to their experiences that they would have every year on summer holidays in southern Europe. It’s also hot there, so you don’t need clever advice from the other side of the world.
Among all the well-intentioned tips is the tweet by journalist David Whitley, who worked in Australia for a long time and lives in England. In the current heat, it helps to seek the shade of eucalyptus trees, as well as to be careful when going into the water to cool off: there could be crocodiles or stingrays in there.