Dry eyes in Bismarck, North Dakota

In Bismarck, dry eyes are mostly a winter-indoors problem. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals give January an average temperature of 12.8°F and count about 184 nights a year at or below freezing, so furnaces run for months and indoor air gets very dry. Prairie wind adds to it outdoors. A humidifier, eyewear in the wind and a lubricating drop used as labeled help most.

Why do my eyes feel dry in Bismarck when the air isn’t dry?

NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data table of relative humidity shows Bismarck as one of the more humid-looking cities on the northern plains. Winter mornings average around 77 to 82 percent, and January afternoons 71 percent. People read those numbers and wonder why their eyes feel like sandpaper by February.

The answer is temperature. Relative humidity describes how full the air is compared with what it could hold at its current temperature, and very cold air holds very little water. When 5°F air at 75 percent is pulled into a house and warmed to 70°F, its relative humidity falls to a small fraction of that. The air didn’t lose water; it just got warmer. That warmed air is what your eyes sit in all evening and all night.

How cold Bismarck gets, from NOAA’s normals

• January: average 12.8°F, with highs of 23.2°F and lows of 2.4°F.
• December through February: an average of 16.0°F across the three months.
• About 184 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, more than half the calendar.
• 50.5 inches of snow in a normal season, with December the snowiest month at 10.1 inches.
• March still averages 30.1°F, so the heating season runs well into spring.

NOAA lists the Bismarck airport station at 505.4 meters, about 1,658 feet. That’s low compared with the Rockies, so altitude is not the issue here. Cold and heating are.

Spring and summer: when the outside air dries out

The humidity table shows Bismarck’s afternoons dropping to 50 percent in April, 49 percent in May and 48 percent in August. Those are the months people spend the most time outside: planting, fishing on the Missouri, walking the trails along the river, or working road and building crews. With wind across open country, afternoon dryness adds up.

Years vary a lot. The National Weather Service’s 2025 annual summary for Bismarck recorded 25.97 inches of precipitation against a normal of 19.05, but only 34.6 inches of snow against a normal of 50.5. The same summary logged a high of 99°F and a low of minus 39°F within the year, a spread of 138 degrees.

Making a Bismarck house easier on your eyes

• Run a humidifier in the bedroom through the heating season, and clean it as the maker directs.
• Keep forced-air vents from blowing at the couch, the bed or your desk chair.
• If you use a space heater, aim it at your legs, not your face. Dry eyes from a space heater has more.
• Take breaks from screens; staring at a phone or monitor slows blinking, and blinking is what spreads tears.
• Don’t sleep facing a heat register or a fan.

Working the cold: capitol offices, farms and job sites

Bismarck is North Dakota’s capital, and plenty of people here spend the workday in heated state, county and office buildings, where the dry-air problem runs from October to April. Others work on farms, ranches, road crews or energy sites, trading the dry office for wind and a truck heater. Dry eyes in a heated office covers the indoor side. For the outdoor side, eye protection that wraps around and a hat brim do most of the work.

Using Quell in a North Dakota winter

Quell’s label lists its Uses as: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. It is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and that loss is what dry indoor heat speeds up. The directions are: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Spacing them through the day works well: one in the morning, one at lunch, one in the evening.

Cold storage is the Bismarck-specific risk. The label says: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), and a January night in a parked car, at an average low of 2.4°F, is far below that. Keep the bottle in a coat pocket by day and indoors at night. Before using a bottle that got cold, let it come to room temperature and look at it against the label’s line: If this product changes color. Then follow the handling rule: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Ordering Quell to Bismarck

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to addresses across the United States, North Dakota included. Shipping is $10.00, free on 3 or more bottles. Because no delivery date is promised and winter weather can slow any package, order before your last bottle runs low. The Bismarck page and the North Dakota page have local details, and the Fargo guide covers the Red River Valley.

If dryness keeps up even with a humidified room, or you notice pain or vision changes, follow the label: 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.