Dry eye relief in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Dry eye relief in Milwaukee comes down to two kinds of air: the cold wind coming off Lake Michigan and the furnace-dried air inside from November to April. Shield your eyes outdoors, aim heat vents away from your face, add moisture to the rooms where you sleep and work, and use a lubricating drop exactly as its label directs. Pain, vision changes or dryness that won’t settle belong with an eye doctor.

What NOAA’s Mitchell Airport record shows

NOAA’s official 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Milwaukee come from the station at General Mitchell International Airport, about 670 feet above sea level and a few miles inland from the lake. The numbers explain why so many people here spend half the year indoors:

• An average annual temperature of 49.3°F.
• January’s normal high is 30.9°F and its normal low is 17.2°F.
• About 123 nights a year fall to freezing or colder, and roughly 50 days never climb above freezing at all.
• Normal snowfall is 48.7 inches, most of it in December (10.4), January (14.9) and February (11.8).
• Summer is short and mild by comparison: July’s normal high is 81.9°F, and the airport logs only about 9 days a year at 90°F or hotter.
• Total precipitation runs about 34.6 inches, with June the wettest month at 4.38.

Fifty days below freezing means fifty days when nobody opens a window. Most of a Milwaukee winter is spent breathing air that a furnace has warmed from the teens or twenties, and warming cold air lowers its relative humidity sharply.

Why the humidity numbers fool people

NOAA’s relative humidity table for Milwaukee shows 76 percent on an average January morning and 68 percent in the afternoon. Those look like comfortable, moist figures. They describe outdoor air at 20 degrees, though. Bring that same air inside and heat it to 70, and its relative humidity can fall to a fraction of what it was, because warm air holds far more water than cold air does.

That is why a person can shovel wet lake-effect snow in the morning and feel gritty, scratchy eyes by evening at a desk. The tear film loses water fastest in warm, dry, moving air, and forced-air heat is all three. A humidifier in the bedroom, a houseplant tray or two, and keeping the thermostat a degree or two lower all help the indoor side. Our guide on winter heating and dry eyes goes room by room.

Lake wind on the lakefront and downtown

Living next to a Great Lake brings wind. On a raw March day the gusts along Lincoln Memorial Drive, the Hoan Bridge approach or the Third Ward riverwalk hit your face at eye level, and wind strips moisture off the eye’s surface quickly. A few habits help:

• Wear wraparound sunglasses or glasses outdoors, even when it’s overcast; they break up the wind before it reaches the eye.
• Turn your back to gusts while waiting for the bus or the Hop streetcar.
• Pull a hat brim low on snowy days, when glare off fresh snow makes people squint and blink less fully.
• Give your eyes a minute indoors before reaching for a drop; tearing from cold wind often settles on its own once you’re out of it.

Spring is the surprise season. NOAA’s table puts Milwaukee’s lowest average afternoon humidity in April, at 59 percent, the month when the furnace is still running at night and the lakefront wind is still cold. Many people notice their eyes most during that stretch, after they’ve stopped expecting winter to bother them.

Summer by the lake, and the air conditioning

Summer is the gentlest season for Milwaukee eyes. August mornings average 85 percent humidity in NOAA’s table, and cool lake air often takes the edge off hot afternoons near the shore. The trouble spots are indoors and on the road: offices cooled hard against the occasional heat wave, car vents pointed at the driver, and long festival days on the lakefront grounds in sun and wind. Sunglasses and a water bottle cover most of it.

Using a lubricating drop through a Wisconsin winter

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, which is the problem warm, dry indoor air creates. The label’s Uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Its directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. A practical Milwaukee rhythm is one drop before the commute, one at midday, and one in the evening when the heat has been running for hours. Keep the label’s handling line in mind each time: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Cold matters for the bottle too. The storage line on the carton reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A car parked all night at a Bay View curb in January drops far below that, so carry the bottle in an inside coat pocket or bag rather than leaving it in the glove box. The label’s “Do not use” line reads: If this product changes color. Read the full Drug Facts panel before the first use, including the egg and bird caution.

Getting Quell delivered in Milwaukee

We ship from Brentwood, Tennessee, to addresses anywhere in the US, including every Milwaukee neighborhood and suburb. There’s no account to set up; checkout works as a guest. Shipping costs $10.00, and orders of 3 bottles or more ship free. We don’t promise a delivery date, but you’ll get a shipping email with tracking. Unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery without being sent back. See the Milwaukee page or the Wisconsin page for local details.

When it’s more than winter air

A drop helps with ordinary dryness and irritation. Working out the cause of eyes that keep bothering you, and what to do about it, is an eye doctor’s job. The label sets the line clearly: 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.

The dry eye self-check can help you decide whether to book a visit; it’s not a diagnosis. Our list of eye symptoms that need a doctor covers the signs that shouldn’t wait.