Hot weather

I can cope better with dry heat [as in Saudi], then humid heat [as in southern USA] but oh for some hot weather in the UK to follow up on these ideas .

I soon got used to coping with heat and humidity in the sub tropics, where I have lived for 31 years. Rule one is - slow down! Rushing round and stressing out is bad in a heatwave.

NEVER spend much time outside between 11am and 3pm - ish, and when you have to be outside, stay in the shade.

Buy a fan if you don't have air conditioning, and open the windows. Best if you have fly screens. Moving the air around does help.

When desperate, take a cold shower fully clothed, or in Tshirt and panties, and let it dry on you.

Wear light, loose clothing in natural fibres - nothing worse than nylon in a heatwave!

Drink lots of water - more than you think you need.

Spend some time in an air conditioned shopping centre or library etc.

None of this costs much, if anything, and all of it is common sense.

There is something in what you say, charlotta, but North Americans are probably better equipped to cope with sudden heat waves than almost anywhere else on the planet, what with water on tap in every home, air-con, etc, etc. I don't agree that people who live in the tropics "are better able" to cope with the heat. They cope because they have to.
I'm not sure I ever acclimatised to the tropics. I learned how to tolerate the heat and not to be overcome by it but it was early March I moved back to Britain and I instantly remembered what it felt like to be actually comfortable.

Excessive cold is actually far more dangerous than heat and cold snaps in Europe and North America cause far more deaths.

To sit out in that heat is ridiculous! I lived in Singapore when I was a child for a few years and we never used suntan lotion just stayed in the shade when we could and we didnt burn, and my two sisters were white blond so very fair skinned (think I was the milkmans ), but it was a long time before we all became aware of the dangers of the sun.

I think that most White Americans are of European stock and therefore more able to cope with cold weather rather than hot weather. I have heard of friends in Texas who are definitely not sitting in the sun but have not been out of the house for weeks. The people of Thailand are able to cope better with the heat, it is known fact that if you are long enough in that sort of climate you acclimatise. It is the sudden heat, the jumps in temperature which we Europeans or White americans find so trying.