Southern Heat Survival: Hacks Southerners Swear By To Outsmart Humidity

The surprisingly practical (and sometimes hilarious) ways Southerners keep cool when the air feels like soup

Natalie C. Frank, Ph.D September 12, 2025

Tasnim News Agency [CC BY 4.0]

If you’re not familiar with the Southern summer, picture this: You step outside and it feels like you’ve entered a Turkish sauna. The air is thick, heavy, cloying, and humid enough to turn the straightest hair into a frizzy halo. You’re sweating before you finish unlocking the car. And that pretty sundress you put on this morning? By the time you reach the mailbox, it’s stuck to your back like cling wrap. Walking feels more like swimming, and the heat waves cause reality to bend and warp. Welcome to Southern living — where the forecast says “99 degrees” but your body insists it’s more like “I might melt into the pavement.”

So how do Southerners survive this swampy season without losing their minds? It’s not just ceiling fans and sweet tea, though both are sacred. People here have picked up time-tested, sometimes goofy hacks to get through days when the air feels like soup. Some will make you laugh, but they’re all born of real experience.

Start with hydration. Water isn’t optional. It’s a matter of survival. The joke says Southerners don’t sweat, they “glisten,” but glisten too long without refilling and you’ll be flat on your back. Lots of folks tote insulated tumblers 12 times the size of a Big Gulp full of ice water, and it’s not just for Instagram photos. In a place where ice melts faster than butter on a biscuit, a cup that keeps drinks cold all day is essential. And yes, we put far more ice than liquid. Ice makes the drink.

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