Dry eye relief in Baltimore, Maryland

Dry eye relief in Baltimore centers on the heating season. NOAA counts about 93 nights a year at or below freezing at BWI, so furnaces and radiators run from late fall into spring, drying indoor air. Add harbor wind and summer air conditioning, and eyes get a workout. Humidify the bedroom, keep heat and vents off your face, wear sunglasses by the water and use a lubricating drop as labeled.

Baltimore’s climate in NOAA’s numbers

Baltimore’s official weather station is at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, south of the city in Anne Arundel County, at about 156 feet. The 1991 to 2020 climate normals from NOAA:

• About 45 inches of precipitation in a normal year, spread fairly evenly; July is the wettest month at 4.48 inches and February the driest at 2.90.
• Normal snowfall of 19.3 inches, with February the snowiest month at 7.5 inches.
• About 34 days a year at 90°F or hotter, and a normal July high of 88.8°F.
• About 93 nights at or below freezing, and close to 11 days when the high stays at 32°F or lower.

That freezing-night count stands out. Reagan National, about 30 miles down the road, averages around 60. BWI sits inland, away from the river and the dense pavement of a downtown, and its winter nights run colder.

Why are my eyes so dry in the winter in Baltimore?

Cold outdoor air holds very little water. When the furnace warms it to 68°F, the amount of moisture stays the same while the air’s capacity to hold it climbs, so the relative humidity indoors falls well below what NOAA records outside. January afternoons at BWI average 56 percent humidity outdoors; a heated rowhouse can feel much drier than that.

Older Baltimore homes add their own quirks. Radiators under windows, space heaters in drafty back rooms and forced-air registers in the floor all push warm, dry air toward wherever people sit. Some fixes cost nothing:

• Don’t park your favorite chair directly in front of a radiator or register.
• Run a small humidifier in the bedroom, where you spend the most hours in one spot.
• Keep space heaters a few feet away and aimed at your legs, not your face.
• Turn the car’s heat to the floor setting on the commute up I-83 or down the parkway.

Our guide to dry eyes from a space heater covers placement in more detail.

Harbor wind and spring

The Inner Harbor promenade, Fells Point’s waterfront and the Fort McHenry seawall are lovely and exposed. NOAA’s wind table for Baltimore peaks in March and bottoms out in August. Spring also brings the year’s lowest afternoon humidity, 48 percent in April and 50 percent in March, so a March walk around the harbor can be harder on your eyes than a sticky July evening.

Sunglasses with a wrap shape help on the water taxi and along the promenade, and turning your back to the wind while you wait at a stop takes the worst of it off your eyes.

Summer: muggy outside, dry inside

Baltimore summers are humid outdoors; September mornings at BWI average 84 percent. The dryness comes from indoors, where air conditioning cools and dehydrates the air in offices, hospitals, classrooms and cars. An afternoon game at Camden Yards brings sun and glare off the field, then the drive home with cold air blowing across the dashboard. Keep vents aimed low and take sunglasses to day games.

Screens, shifts and long days

Baltimore’s big employers include hospitals and universities, with long shifts and long hours of reading and charting. Concentrating on a screen slows blinking, and blinking is how the eye spreads a fresh layer of tears. Every so often, look across the room and blink fully a few times. For shift workers, our guide to dry eyes on long nursing shifts has more.

Quell’s label, in brief

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and it’s preservative-free. Its Uses: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Read this caution before buying: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. And follow the label’s storage line, Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), which means not leaving a bottle in a car through a February freeze. The complete panel is on our Drug Facts page.

Ordering Quell to Baltimore

We ship from Brentwood, Tennessee, to Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Towson, Columbia and the rest of Maryland. Guest checkout means no account, shipping costs $10.00, and 3 or more bottles ship free. A shipping email with tracking arrives when your order leaves us; no arrival date is promised, so don’t wait until the last drop. The Baltimore page and the Maryland page have more.

When to call an eye doctor

Persistent dryness deserves a proper exam rather than another bottle. The label puts it plainly: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. If an eye hurts, your vision changes, or something got into your eye, get it looked at promptly.