Dry eye relief in Stamford, Connecticut

In Stamford, dry eyes are mostly an indoor problem. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the station five miles north of downtown count 119.4 nights a year at or below freezing, so homes, offices and train cars run their heat from fall into spring, and heated air pulls moisture from the eye. Quell is a lubricating eye drop that ships to Stamford; dryness that persists belongs with an eye doctor.

What NOAA’s records show for Stamford

The National Centers for Environmental Information keeps normals for a cooperative weather station called Stamford 5 N, in the wooded north end of the city. Its numbers describe a full four-season climate with a long heating season:

• Precipitation averages 51.61 inches a year, spread fairly evenly across the months.
• Snowfall averages 34.0 inches. February is the snowiest month at 11.9 inches, followed by January at 9.1.
• January’s normal high is 38.0°F and its normal low 22.2°F.
• July’s normal high reaches 84.8°F, which is when air conditioning takes over from the furnace.
• An average of 119.4 nights a year drop to 32°F or below.

The shoreline versus north Stamford

Long Island Sound softens the cold along the water. NOAA’s normals for Bridgeport’s Sikorsky airport, the nearest first-order station on the shoreline, show 91.8 freezing nights a year and 33.6 inches of snow. A home near Shippan Point or Cove Island Park sees milder nights than one up by the Merritt Parkway, but both run the heat for months.

The outdoor air here isn’t especially dry. NOAA’s humidity table for Bridgeport averages 75 percent in the morning and 59 percent in the afternoon across the year, and April afternoons are the lowest at 54 percent. The trouble starts when cold winter air comes inside. Air that is warmed without adding moisture has a lower relative humidity than it did outdoors, and a heated room can feel parched even on a damp January day.

The Metro-North commute

Stamford sits on Metro-North’s New Haven Line, and a weekday trip to Grand Central strings together several kinds of drying air: a windy platform, a heated car, a phone or laptop screen held close, then a heated office tower. Reading on a screen cuts down on blinking, and a forced-air vent under the window seat blows warm air upward toward your face.

• Pick a seat away from the heater vents if the car isn’t crowded.
• Put the phone down for part of the ride and look out at the Sound; distance viewing lets you blink more naturally.
• Keep the bottle in a coat pocket or bag you carry, not in a desk at the other end of the commute.
• Wash your hands after the subway or train before you use drops, since handrails pass a lot through your fingers.

Nor’easters and wind off the Sound

Winter storms that come up the coast bring hard wind off the water along with snow or cold rain. Shoveling a driveway or waiting for a bus in that wind dries the eye quickly, and the car heater and defroster blasting afterward don’t help. Wraparound sunglasses or ski goggles for snow clearing, and vents aimed at the windshield rather than your face, take some of the edge off. Dry eyes from cold air covers the outdoor side in more depth.

Keeping the bottle in range through a Connecticut winter

Quell’s storage range is printed on the carton: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A January night with a normal low of 22.2°F puts a car well below that range, so a bottle left in the glove box from evening to morning is out of range by breakfast. A desk drawer, a bag or a bathroom cabinet keeps it steady. If you’re unsure about a bottle that got cold, should eye drops be refrigerated? explains why temperature matters for drops.

Where Quell fits into a Stamford day

The tear film’s outer oil layer slows evaporation of the water underneath it. Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and its directions are short: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. A commuter might use one before leaving for the station, one in the early afternoon at the office and one in the evening at home, when the heat is on and the screens are still out. Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Ordering to Stamford

There’s no Quell counter in Fairfield County: every bottle ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to the address you enter at checkout, whether that’s a house in Springdale or an office downtown. Shipping is $10.00, and an order of 3 bottles ships free. No delivery date is promised. The Stamford page and the Connecticut page have local details.

When to see an eye doctor in Stamford

If your eyes stay dry after the heat goes off in spring, or if anything about your sight changes, see an optometrist or ophthalmologist. Working out the reason and deciding what to do is theirs to handle. Quell’s label lists when to stop using it: 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.