What do you do to deal with NoVA's hot weather during commute?

[MadHaus]

I experienced the misery of metro travel during the recent heat wave, and cannot imagine how awful it will be in July and August. Having read the above posts, I'm still wondering how folks cope with the heat.

What, especially, do men do when they have to wear a suit and tie to work and there are not shower/changing facilities at the office? Do even the more conservative offices permit summer business casual attire? When I used to travel to south FL on business I saw many men wearing short sleeve linen shirts and cotton slacks for the summer (including lawyers and bankers.) In NOLA the only change I noticed was that summer suits were seersucker instead of worsted wool.

Do the security patrols prevent people from bringing water bottles on the trains? Would a small battery-powered fan be okay to use? I think I need to put together a care package with cold packs, personal misting fans, water bottles w/ ice inserts, talc, etc. to ship up to NoVA. Any other suggestions?

[tsuric]

Spend three weeks in the Philippines where the average high is 95F EVERYDAY....

Then I come back and the heat feels like nothing.

[MadHaus]

Spend three weeks in the Philippines where the average high is 95F EVERYDAY....

Yeah, so helpful. I've spent most of my life in various FL cities, NOLA, and AL. I know about heat and humidity. In none of those places did I have to commute in an overcrowded and nearly airless train. Even when I rode the streetcar during NOLA summers there was a bit of breeze that made it tolerable.

My concern is for a relative who's prone to heat exhaustion/heat stroke. I was told that yesterday a woman fainted while a very stuffy Orange line train was stuck and EMTs had to be summoned. It wouldn't surprise me if that's a daily event in the summer.

[yamota]

Some people just can't handle the heat,me I love it, I thrive in it, I was built for the heat...like the old Glenn Frey song "The heat is on!"