Dry eye relief in Smyrna, Tennessee

Middle Tennessee feels humid, but Smyrna’s air still turns dry at times that surprise people. NOAA’s humidity table for Nashville, the nearest long official record, puts April’s average afternoon humidity at 51 percent, the lowest of the year, with October close behind at 53. Add heated homes, air-conditioned plants and long drives on I-24, and eyes dry out. Quell’s label directions are simple: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.

What Nashville’s records say about Smyrna weather

Smyrna doesn’t have a long-term official station of its own in NOAA’s normals, so the Nashville International Airport record, a short drive up I-24, is the closest reliable guide. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals and its Comparative Climatic Data humidity table show a year with two very different faces:

• Summer: July’s normal high is 90.9°F, and August and September mornings average 89 percent relative humidity.
• Spring: April afternoons average 51 percent humidity, the driest of any month in the table.
• Fall: October is the driest month for rain, with a normal of 3.36 inches, and its afternoons average 53 percent humidity.
• Winter: January’s normal low is 30.1°F, cold enough that furnaces run most nights.
• Wettest month: May, with a normal of 6.2 inches of rain.

So the muggy summer most people picture is real, but the spring and fall afternoons that feel pleasant are when the outdoor air is driest. That’s when a day at the lake or a walk on the greenway can leave eyes feeling tight by evening.

Plant shifts, warehouses and the Nissan corridor

According to the Town of Smyrna, Nissan chose Smyrna in the early 1980s and built its first vehicle there in 1983, and manufacturing and distribution have shaped the town ever since. Long shifts in big buildings bring their own pressures on the eyes: forced air from overhead units, concentration on close work that cuts down blinking, and twelve-hour rotations that make it easy to forget anything on a schedule.

• Keep the bottle in a locker or lunch bag rather than on a hot dashboard in the lot.
• Tie your three drops to fixed points in the shift, such as start, lunch and the drive home, rather than to the clock.
• Wash your hands before each drop; grease, dust and cutting fluid don’t belong near the eye or the bottle tip.
• If safety glasses are required at your station, ask your safety lead when and where you can step off the floor to use drops.

Percy Priest Lake, the Stones River and time outdoors

The Town of Smyrna’s history notes that Percy Priest Lake was created in the 1960s, and its northern arms are a big part of weekend life here: boats, fishing, and the walking trails nearby. Sun on open water means glare and squinting, and an afternoon breeze across the lake moves air over the eye without you noticing. Polarized sunglasses cut both. The boating guide has more on keeping a bottle out of a hot console and handling drops with wet hands.

Heated winters and humid-summer air conditioning

Smyrna homes swing between two kinds of dry. From November to March the heat pump or furnace warms cold air, which lowers indoor humidity. From May to September the air conditioner pulls moisture out as it cools, and a vent over the bed or the couch keeps a constant draft on your face. Pointing vents away from where you sit and sleep is free and tends to make the biggest difference.

Where Quell fits into a Smyrna day

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. It’s preservative-free and Product appears as a milky brown solution; the color comes from its natural ingredients and is normal. The bottle holds .33 fl oz (10 mL). A full list of what’s in it is on the Drug Facts page.

One practical note for the summer: a parked car at a Smyrna plant lot in July gets far hotter than the 90.9°F normal high outside it. Quell’s storage line reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Keep it with you or inside.

Ordering Quell to Smyrna

Quell comes from right up the road: it ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, home of its maker, Aurora Pharmaceuticals, LLC. That doesn’t mean a promised delivery date, so plan a little ahead like you would anywhere. Shipping is $10.00, or free on 3 bottles. The Smyrna, Tennessee page and the Tennessee page have more for local buyers.

When a drop isn’t the answer

Weather and work explain a lot of dryness, but they don’t explain everything. Working out what’s behind eye trouble that keeps coming back, and what to do about it, is an eye doctor’s job, and there are several practices in Rutherford County and across the Nashville area. The label tells you when it’s time: 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. Supplements are outside what this site can speak to; ask your doctor about anything you take by mouth.