Dry eye relief in Niagara Falls, New York

Dry eye relief in Niagara Falls is mostly about the indoor half of the year. NOAA’s normals for Niagara Falls International Airport list about 132 freezing nights and nearly 6,800 heating degree days, so homes run on heated air for months, while wind off the river and Lake Ontario stings outdoors. Humidify at home, keep vents off your face, wear wraparound glasses outside and use a lubricating drop as labeled. See an eye doctor for dryness that persists.

Niagara Falls weather by NOAA’s numbers

NOAA keeps 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Niagara Falls International Airport, east of the city, at about 585 feet above sea level. The figures describe a long, steady winter:

• A January normal high of 31.5°F and a normal low of 16.8°F.
• About 132 nights a year at or below freezing, and around 47 days when the high stays at or below 32°F.
• About five nights a year at zero or colder.
• 6,792 heating degree days a year, a measure of how much heating the climate calls for.
• About 33 inches of precipitation a year, with roughly 80 days bringing a tenth of an inch or more.
• A July normal high of 80.7°F, so summers are comfortable rather than hot.

The airport’s file doesn’t carry a snowfall normal, but Buffalo’s airport, about 20 miles south, does: 95.4 inches a year, with about 25 inches in December and 27 in January. Lake-effect bands off Lake Erie make totals vary a lot across short distances, so Niagara Falls often sees less than Buffalo’s southern suburbs, yet winter here is long and gray either way.

Humid outside, dry inside

NOAA’s humidity table for Buffalo shows something that surprises people: winter afternoons are the most humid of the year outdoors, about 72 percent relative humidity in January, while late spring and summer afternoons drop to about 55 percent. So why do eyes feel driest in winter?

Because relative humidity depends on temperature. Air at 20°F with a high relative humidity still holds very little actual water. When a furnace warms that air to 70°F, the same small amount of moisture is spread across air that could hold far more, and the indoor humidity falls sharply. Every house, school, casino floor and hospital in the city breathes that heated air from late fall into spring.

• Run a humidifier in the bedroom and clean it on its maker’s schedule.
• Redirect floor and ceiling registers away from beds, couches and desks.
• Keep the thermostat moderate; hotter rooms are usually drier rooms.
• Give your eyes screen breaks, since concentrating reduces blinking.

Mist, wind and the river gorge

Living next to the falls has its own weather. Spray rises off the Horseshoe and American Falls in a cloud you can see from miles away, and on a windy day it drifts across Niagara Falls State Park and the streets beside it. Mist on your face feels refreshing, but it isn’t the same thing as a healthy tear film, and the wind carrying it still dries the eye’s surface.

In winter, that spray freezes onto railings, trees and walkways, and the wind running down the river gorge can be bitter. Watching the ice formations at the overlooks, or walking across the Goat Island bridges in January, puts your eyes in moving air well below freezing. Cold wind triggers watery eyes, and once you step back inside into heated air they can feel drier than before. Wraparound sunglasses or goggles and a scarf pulled up high take most of the sting out. Dry eyes from cold air explains the watering reflex.

Work and daily life near the falls

• Tourism and hospitality jobs, often split between outdoor overlooks and heated, air-handled hotels and casinos.
• Long winter drives on I-190 or along the river with the defroster blowing upward.
• Shifts at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, beside the airport, in wind off the open ground.
• Students and staff at Niagara University and the community college spending evenings on laptops.

For car trips, point the vents at your chest once the windshield clears and avoid putting drops in until you’ve parked.

Using Quell through a western New York winter

Quell’s label gives its Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. It’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, which is the problem heated winter air creates. Follow the label’s directions, Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, and protect the tip: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Cold is the main storage risk here. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), and a bottle left in a car through a January night near the river will fall far below that. Carry it in an inside pocket or keep it indoors. If the solution looks different from how it arrived, the label is clear: If this product changes color.

Ordering Quell to Niagara Falls

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to New York addresses for $10.00, or free with 3 or more bottles. Orders go only to addresses in the United States, so a bottle can’t be sent across the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, Ontario; order to a US address on this side. No delivery date is promised. See the Niagara Falls page or the New York page for more.

When to have your eyes checked

If your eyes stay dry after the heat goes off in spring, or dryness comes with pain or changes in your vision, an eye doctor is the right person to work out what’s going on. The label gives the line to watch for: 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..