Anytime the heat index exceeds body temperature I pack it in. At that point you just can’t sweat enough to keep yourself cool. Yup, I’m an old wimp. I am also in the market for an air conditioned lawn mowing tractor instead of waiting until evening to mow the yard and finishing at 2200 hrs.
My neighbor had a heat stroke last year and spent about a week in the hospital. This summer he is more sensitive to heat than before. We have been hot, very hot before in our time but now that we are older we don’t tolerate heat so well. Leave throwing hay at 105 degrees to much younger folks. Our skin is thinner now and we have fewer micro arteries and vessels in our skin for heat exchange. The heat being harder on us as we age is a real thing.
Do as much for your animals that live outdoors as you can this time of year. Provide them plenty of cool and clean water, wet down the dirt beneath the shrubs, provide them a fan on the porch. They get heat stroke as well, particularly cats since they don’t sweat anywhere but between their toes and don’t usually pant unless they are in distress.
Fortunately, I found my old tomcat under some bushes out in the corner of the yard three weeks ago, he was lifeless. I had no idea what had happened and suspected hemoplasmosis or bobcat fever, it was heat stroke. Over four days of near continuous care and IV fluids I nursed him back to health. I thought he had gone blind but it was temporary but very pitiful to see him staggering and bumping into things. Much better now and sassy again but living in the shop until the weather cools and I can get him neutered. He will not survive his considerable wanderings and I hope to curb his zeal for that.
“I am also in the market for an air conditioned lawn mowing tractor instead of waiting until evening to mow the yard and finishing at 2200 hrs.”
I am 78 and my battery push mower and I were still making the rounds. Wife surprised me with a self-propelled one just before summer set in.