Dry eye relief in Tampa, Florida

Dry eye relief in Tampa is mostly an indoor job. The outdoor air is humid nearly all year, but air conditioning runs for most of it, and spring afternoons are the driest of the year. Keep cold vents off your face, blink fully during screen work, wear sunglasses on the water, and use a lubricating drop as its label directs. Eye pain or vision changes need an eye doctor.

What NOAA’s records say about Tampa

The National Centers for Environmental Information publishes 30-year climate normals for Tampa International Airport, which sits about 19 feet above sea level on the edge of Old Tampa Bay. The 1991 to 2020 figures:

• About 49.5 inches of rain in a normal year, and nearly half of it (24.15 inches) falls in June, July and August.
• August is the wettest month at 9.03 inches; November is the driest at 1.40.
• About 94 days a year reach 90°F or hotter, and July and August highs average about 91°F.
• Freezing nights are rare: less than one a year on average.
• The snowfall normal is zero.

Those numbers describe a place where heat, not cold, sets the indoor routine. NOAA puts Tampa’s cooling degree days at about 3,928 a year against roughly 434 heating degree days, which is a technical way of saying the air conditioner does nearly all the work and the furnace barely gets a turn.

Why your eyes feel dry in such a humid city

NOAA’s relative humidity table for Tampa shows mornings averaging 86 percent across the year and afternoons 58 percent. Step outside on a July afternoon and the air is thick. So why do so many people around the bay still reach for drops?

Because most of the day happens indoors. An air conditioner cools air by passing it over cold coils, and it pulls water out as it does. The result is cool, drier air moving steadily through offices, cars, classrooms and bedrooms. Moving air across the eye speeds up evaporation from the tear film, the thin layer of oil, water and mucus that keeps the surface smooth. Sit under a ceiling diffuser at work for eight hours and the effect adds up, humid parking lot or not.

• Angle dashboard vents toward your chest or the windshield, not your face, on the drive down I-275.
• Ask to move your desk out from under a supply vent, or close the louvers that point at your chair.
• Run the bedroom ceiling fan on a lower speed, or point a box fan at your feet.
• Take a screen break now and then: look across the room and blink fully a few times, since screen work cuts the blink rate.

Spring is Tampa’s dry season

The driest air of the year arrives before the rainy season. NOAA’s table gives Tampa an April afternoon average of 51 percent humidity, its lowest of any month, with March at 54 and May at 52. Rainfall stays near 2.5 inches a month from January through May, then jumps to 7.37 inches in June when the afternoon thunderstorms start. If your eyes feel scratchier in April than in August, the records back you up.

Spring is also when people spend the most time outside: spring training games, waterfront festivals, evenings on Bayshore Boulevard. Breezy, lower-humidity afternoons plus hours in the sun make it a good season for wraparound sunglasses and a bottle in your bag.

Boating, beaches and Gulf breezes

Wind matters as much as humidity. A boat running across the bay pushes a steady stream of air across your face, and an afternoon on the Gulf beaches adds salt spray and glare off the water and sand. Polarized wraparound sunglasses cut both wind and glare. A brimmed hat helps with the overhead sun. Rinse salt off your hands with fresh water before you touch anything near your eyes.

Heat is the other concern on the water. The label’s storage line reads Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), and Tampa climbs above the top of that range on about 94 afternoons a year in the shade, let alone in a closed console or a car in the sun. Keep the bottle in a shaded bag that comes off the boat with you, and never leave it on the dashboard.

What Quell’s label says

Quell is a preservative-free lubricating drop, designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. That’s the layer that slows evaporation, which is exactly what cold, moving air works against. Its Drug Facts panel gives the Uses as “For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye” and the directions as “Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.”

Before the first drop, read the warning: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. Keep the tip clean, as the label puts it: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. The solution is supposed to look the way the panel describes it, “Product appears as a milky brown solution,” because it contains oils. The Drug Facts page has the full panel.

Ordering Quell in Tampa

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to Tampa, St. Petersburg, Brandon and the rest of the country. Checkout works without an account, shipping costs $10.00, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free. Once your order goes out, a shipping email brings the tracking link. We don’t promise a delivery date, so it’s worth ordering before the last bottle runs dry. A still-sealed bottle can be refunded within 30 days of delivery, and nothing has to be mailed back. The Tampa page and the Florida page have more, or go straight to the order panel.

When dryness needs an eye doctor

A drop is for ordinary dryness and irritation. If symptoms keep coming back, an eye doctor can work out the cause and what to do about it. The label sets the line for stopping: 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.

Sudden pain, blurred vision that doesn’t clear with blinking, or one eye much worse than the other is a reason to book a visit rather than buy another bottle. Our dry eye self-check can help you describe what you’re feeling before an appointment; it’s not a diagnosis.