Summer weather can be fun for a little bit—I love a 90-degree day to make a cold swimming pool feel refreshing—but a lot of us are seeing serious heat advisories lately. When the temperature and humidity are high enough, the weather can be genuinely dangerous. Here’s what you should know about staying cool and staying safe.

What is an excessive heat warning?

First, let’s talk about the difference between a “warning” and a watch or outlook. A warning is the most serious of the three. As the Normal Fire Department famously explained with a taco analogy, a taco watch means that we have the ingredients to make tacos. A taco warning means you better get ready because we are having tacos right now.

Here’s how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes these three levels:

• An excessive heat outlook means that an excessive heat event could occur in the next three to seven days.

• An excessive heat watch means that weather conditions are such that an excessive heat event is likely in the next 24 to 72 hours.

• An excessive heat warning means that a dangerous level of heat is coming in the next 12 to 24 hours. The Red Cross says this means it is time to “take precautions immediately to avoid heat-related illness.”

• A heat advisory means that dangerous heat conditions are already happening.

You can see weather statements like the above for your area by going to weather.gov, which has a big color-coded map on the front page telling you which areas are under a watch or warning, and for what dangers. (Fire, wind, and flood alerts are also included.)

How to stay hydrated in a heat wave

Heat can be dangerous. If you get so hot that you cannot cool down, you’re susceptible to heat illness including heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

So, when it comes to taking care of yourself and checking on others, make sure to:

• Stay hydrated. Drinking enough water allows your body to cool itself through sweating. Drink before you’re thirsty, and drink plenty of water; keep sugary and alcoholic drinks to a minimum.

• Get electrolytes. You lose sodium from your body when you sweat, but normal food intake is usually enough to replace it. Sports drinks and electrolyte tablets are convenient, too.

• Check with your doctor if you have a condition that requires you to keep a close eye on your hydration or electrolytes. They can give you more specific guidance on how much you should be drinking. Also ask if any of your medications can make you more susceptible to extreme heat; some can.

A note for those who sweat a lot, especially athletes and outdoor workers: normally it’s OK to just drink when you’re thirsty, and your body will make sure you stay hydrated. But in extreme conditions, this may not be enough, since your body can only absorb so much water per hour. If you’re sweating water out faster than than your digestive system can bring it in, it’s hard to stay properly hydrated. That’s why it can be a good idea to start your day, or your workout, extra hydrated.

How to keep cool in a heat wave

First, stay in the air conditioning as much as you can. If you don’t have air conditioning at home, find air conditioned places you can spend time. These might be a friend’s or family member’s house, or public places like a shopping mall or a library. Communities often set up cooling stations for heat relief. If you can’t find one, check with your local health department, with this directory that links directly to local cooling station listings where possible, or call 2-1-1.

When you have to go out, wear light-colored, loose-fitting clothing, and stay in the shade as much as you can. Bring your water. Don’t forget sunscreen if you’ll be in the sun, and remember that not all sunscreen is sweat-proof.

The early morning and late evening will be the least hot times to be outside. Use those times for exercise, outdoor work, or other physical tasks. Plan in time to rest in the shade as needed, for example if you’re going to be walking to the store.

Electric fans are great for cooling you down if it’s mildly hot, but once temperatures are in the high 90s or above, a fan alone can’t keep you cool enough to prevent heat illness. Seek out air conditioning, or take a cold shower or bath.

How to take care of loved ones in a heat wave

The same tips that you use for yourself apply to others as well, including children, pets, and elderly neighbors. Make sure never to leave children or pets in a car in the heat, even for a short time. Double check when you leave the car that everybody has gotten out.

If you know people who don’t have air conditioning, make sure to check on them. An estimated 80% of deaths from extreme heat occur in people who are 60 or older, so definitely check in on the older folks in your life. Find out if they’re able to keep themselves cool or if they need a ride to a cooling station. Check on their pets, too.

The Red Cross advises checking on older adults and people with chronic health conditions at least twice a day, and asking these questions:

• Are they drinking enough water?

• Do they have access to air conditioning?

• Do they know how to keep cool?

• Do they show any signs of heat stress?

Know the signs of heat illness

Heat exhaustion occurs when we can’t cool ourselves down enough. It’s not an emergency yet, but could quickly get worse. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and feeling faint can all occur with heat exhaustion. The skin is usually cold, pale, clammy, and sweaty. If you’re throwing up from the heat or if your symptoms last more than an hour, it’s time to seek medical help.

Heatstroke is the next stage, and it’s an emergency. Call 911 if somebody has a high body temperature (over 103), if they act confused or drunk, if they pass out, or if they have stopped sweating and have hot, reddened skin. The CDC has more information here.

In either case, it’s important to cool the person down. (If you have called 911, do this while you wait for help.) Loosen clothes and consider a cold bath or shower, or place cool wet cloths on the person. You can offer them a sip of water if they have heat exhaustion, but skip this step if they have signs of heatstroke.

If all of this is too much to remember, the Red Cross has a printable fact sheet that includes tips for staying cool and a chart with the symptoms and recommended first aid for heat illness.

If you grew up playing video games in the ’80s or ’90s, you might have a problem returning to those titles now. Trying to play Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country on your 65-inch 4K TV isn’t quite the same experience as you had during your childhood, especially if you simply plug your old console into your TV.

Sure, technology has advanced significantly since the age of the Super Nintendo, but the truth is, these games still look great. It’s less about how much these titles have aged, and more about the way you’re experiencing them in 2025. Games from this era simply weren’t designed to be played on high-definition displays, whether that’s an enormous TV, or your portable Switch. Nintendo’s most recent update shows why that is.

This week, Nintendo updated the Nintendo Classics app on Switch 2. As part of this update, SNES games now have an updated CRT filter. As the name implies, this filter replicates the experience of displaying the game through a CRT TV, complete with scanlines and interlacing. If you remember what it was like to play games on these types of TVs, the filter is going to bring you back—and show you how these 30-year-old games are really supposed to look.

What’s the deal with scanlines?

Modern TVs are made up of pixels—individual color sources that together can form a picture. CRTs, however, do not have pixels. Instead, CRT displays are made up of horizontal lines, “drawn” one at a time by an internal electron gun firing at the display. (Yes, CRTs are very cool.) The standard allowed for 480 of these lines to be drawn each second. Either half the lines are drawn at a time, alternating between the even-numbered and odd-numbered lines (interlaced video), or half the lines are always blank, while the other half are always active (progressive video).

This is wildly oversimplified, but here’s the upshot: When a console like the SNES is outputting progressive video, you see those blank lines running through the image. These are commonly referred to as scanlines.

This is the display standard game developers were working with at the time, and, as such, their artwork was designed with it in mind. When you play a retro, pixel art-style game on a modern TV, especially if that game has been optimized for a modern system like Switch 2, you’re able to see each individual pixel in that artwork. It’s interesting to see how the art was done, and the game is perfectly playable in this form, but it’s often not how the artists originally intended for that art to be seen.

When that same pixel art is displayed on a CRT, or through a CRT filter, the interlacing blends those pixels. What you end up with is an image that is less sharp, but might actually be more pleasing to the eye. The pixel-perfect image without the filter might look too blocky, but through scanlines, those blocks blend into the image its supposed to represent. As someone who remembers the age of CRTs all too well, the CRT filter just looks so good. Polygon has some good side-by-side examples here if you’d like a visual.

Now, this doesn’t mean these SNES games are unplayable without the filter. The games themselves are upgraded to play on modern consoles and displays, are still look good. This isn’t like plugging a SNES into your 4K TV using composite cables: I’ll take sharp pixel art without the CRT filter on the Switch 2 over that blurry mess any day. If you prefer the sharp look, go for it. But for those of us that want to experience these games closer to how they looked back in the day, the CRT filter is where its at.

How to use the Switch’s CRT filter

To use the CRT filter, you’ll need to subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online. From here, open the SNES Classics app, go to settings, and choose “CRT filter.” This is available on both the original Switch and the Switch 2, but Polygon says it looks better on the latter.

The CRT filter has also been an option for Nintendo 64 and GameCube games on Switch 2, for subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion pack.

Apple’s new Workout Buddy feature is intriguing—a voice from your Apple Watch that gives you pep talks and stats as you exercise. But when I installed the WatchOS public beta (after reading and disregarding all the warnings we’ve given about doing so), I discovered that my watch couldn’t run Workout Buddy, even though it’s a Series 10, which should be supported.

And yes, I should have read the fine print a little closer, but this particular caveat isn’t exactly being communicated loud and clear: Workout Buddy arguably isn’t really a feature of your watch at all, but a feature of your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. If you don’t have at least an iPhone 15 Pro, you don’t get Workout Buddy on your Apple Watch. 

I found this out in the most embarrassing way, so feel free to laugh: I accepted the assignment to test out the public beta and report on Workout Buddy; I learned how to install a public beta; I satisfied myself that I was OK with the risks of doing so. I backed up my iPhone, then installed the beta on my phone, then installed the beta on my watch. Then I changed into running clothes, drove to the park where I like to run, slathered myself in sunscreen, and as I was about to start my first run with my new Workout Buddy, found that the option wasn’t there. I triple-checked everything. The beta was installed, I had the new workout screen view, I was looking in the correct menu…but I was carrying an iPhone 12 mini (the last phone Apple ever made that fits comfortably in my pocket, but that’s a rant for another time). And that means no Workout Buddy for me.

Workout Buddy needs an iPhone 15 Pro or 16 to work, and it needs to be with you the whole time

If you’ve been paying close attention to Apple’s announcements about Apple Intelligence, you might know offhand exactly which iPhones it means when it says (in the sixth of six paragraphs on the feature) that “Workout Buddy will be available on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, and requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone nearby.” 

Me, I’m just a dumb jock, so checking the list of Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone versions did not occur to me. I just noticed that Workout Buddy is listed among the features of WatchOS, so I thought it was a WatchOS feature. But to get that peppy coach voice, your watch has to get your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone to generate it. And Apple Intelligence sometimes sends requests off for cloud computing, which means your Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone may need to be connected to the internet for this to work. 

So even if you have the right kind of iPhone, you can’t use Workout Buddy if you’re in the habit of leaving it at home (or in your gym locker) during workouts, and it may not work properly if your runs and walks take you to places that have no cellular signal—as many of my trail runs do. This makes it a lot less useful than you might think, even if you aren’t a dummy like me who forgets what kind of phone they are carrying.