Experts have issued a warning to Belgians about rising heat and ozone. The public should be vigilant and make sure to check drinking water supplies, the ambient temperature inside buildings, and to pay attention to loved ones and people living alone.
During such warmer weather, the key is to support the body in doing the thing it does best to keep us cool: sweating and replacing that lost liquid by rehydrating.
Tips on beating the heat often focus on how to feel cooler, rather than how to actually get cooler. Here are five things you are probably doing to feel cooler, some of which may have the effect of keeping you warmer.
Taking cold showers
Cold showers are good for one thing, cooling down the temperature of your skin. But when that happens, the body constricts the blood vessels closest to your skin to preserve heat. This has the effect of caging your body's core temperature while also depriving it of a route to get rid of that heat.
You may notice this effect when after taking a cold shower, you start sweating very quickly afterwards. Instead, "keeping cool in summer will be more effective with a warm shower rather than a cold shower," according to academics from Swinburne University of Technology.
Opening windows during the day
Who doesn't like the feeling of a cool breeze? The desire for this feeling drives many to open their windows during the day to combat a rise in temperature. Unless the incoming air forms part of a flow (for example where windows may be open on opposite sides of a room), the result will be a rise in temperatures in line with outside air temperatures.
"People tend to open up as much as possible when it's hot, but that has a negative effect", according to Jelle Laverge, lecturer in building physics at Ghent University speaking previously to Brussels Times. Instead, windows should be kept shut and blinds or curtains drawn as much as is practical earlier in the day, to preserve the cooler temperature of the air inside.
Alternatively, homes with multiple floors can open windows upstairs and downstairs (as well as internal doors) to drive air rapidly through a building. The warm air will escape through higher windows sucking in any cooler air from below.
Avoiding fanning
Many people avoid fanning, particularly hand fans, as they assume the physical exertion cancels out the benefits of the cool breeze. But this misses the point, fanning is not about feeling cool but supporting the body in getting cool.
Air near the skin is often humid due to evaporation from sweat, what fanning does is replace that more moisture-dense air with dryer air, enabling sweating to work more effectively at reducing the body's core temperature. If you have an electric fan, then even better. However, if the temperature rises above 40 degrees, "fans will heat the body." According to the World Health Organisation.
Pointing your fan the wrong way at night
The primary focus at night time should be on getting hot air out of your home, so that the internal temperature is reduced, including any walls that may have heated up during the day. Pointing an electric fan at you at night will help you to stay cool (see above) but it could be put to more practical use facing the other way.
The key to reducing inside temperatures quickly at night time is to speed up airflow through a draft. In places without opposite-facing windows or different floors, an alternative is to use an electric fan facing outwards. This can simulate airflow and blow warm air out of a room.
Only heading for the beach
The 1 May holiday coincided with a very warm day, and 180,000 Belgians headed for the beach, causing traffic jams and packed trains. If Knokke-Heist's ban on non-local cars this weekend wasn't enough of a warning to stay away from the coast, STIB's reminder that the risk of rail infrastructure failure increases with the heat might be.
While you may end up trapped on a train, the Belgian rail operator does claim to increase the number of air-conditioned services during hotter periods, so that may be some cold comfort. You can also check how busy a train might be with their app.
Alternatively, why head for the beach? There are plenty of other options including day spas, wild swimming, or sweating it out on a cycle ride.
With the increasing length of films, you can also stay in the city and hide out in an air-conditioned cinema. This weekend sees the start of the Brussels International Film Festival.
