Dry eyes in Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth’s outdoor air is fairly humid, so dry eyes there usually come from indoor heat and wind. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals give Duluth an average temperature of just 40.6°F for the whole year, which means furnaces run most months, and the National Weather Service measured a 9.8 mph average wind in 2025. Humidify the rooms you live in, shield your eyes outside, and use a lubricating drop as labeled.

Why are my eyes dry in Duluth if it’s so humid?

By the numbers, Duluth’s outdoor air isn’t dry at all. NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data table averages 82 percent humidity in the morning and 63 percent in the afternoon across the year, and the National Weather Service’s 2025 summary for the airport put the year’s average at 71 percent. Lake Superior keeps moisture in the air.

Indoors is a different climate. Cold air holds little water, and when it’s warmed to room temperature its relative humidity drops a long way. With a yearly average temperature of 40.6°F, Duluth houses, offices and ships’ cabins are heated far more of the year than in most US cities. Your eyes spend most of their waking hours in that warmed air, not in the damp lake breeze.

A long heating season, by NOAA’s normals

• January averages 11.2°F, with highs of 19.9°F and lows of 2.4°F.
• March still averages 27.0°F and April 39.5°F, so the furnace keeps running well into spring.
• About 177 days a year bring a low at or below freezing.
• July, the warmest month, has an average high of only 77.7°F.
• Snowfall normally totals 90.2 inches a season, with December averaging 18.7 inches and January 16.8.

Seasons don’t always match the normals. The NWS Duluth office’s 2025 annual summary recorded 68.3 inches of snow and 20.35 inches of precipitation, both well below normal, and a low of minus 27°F on January 21.

Wind on the hillside and along the lake

Duluth climbs steeply from the harbor to the top of the hill, where NOAA lists the airport weather station at 435.3 meters, about 1,428 feet. Neighborhoods on the slope and along the shore get wind from different directions depending on the weather. The NWS 2025 summary gives a yearly average wind speed of 9.8 mph at the airport and a highest gust of 59 mph on February 28.

A cold wind off the lake is hard on eyes in a specific way. It makes them water, which feels like the opposite of dry, but reflex tears are mostly water and run off without the oil that slows evaporation. Walk the Lakewalk on a raw November day and your eyes can feel both wet and gritty, then feel drier once you’re inside again. Wraparound sunglasses or glasses with side shields cut the wind before it reaches the eye.

Spring: the driest outdoor stretch

NOAA’s table shows Duluth afternoons at their driest in spring: 56 percent in April and 54 percent in May. That’s still not desert air, but those are also the months when people start spending long hours outside again, raking, biking the hillside trails or getting boats ready, often in a wind that hasn’t warmed up yet.

Port work, shifts and cold-weather jobs

Duluth’s harbor and the work around it keep people outdoors through the winter, from dock and rail crews to construction and road maintenance. Hospital and university staff, on the other hand, may spend twelve-hour days in heated buildings. Either way, the routine that helps looks similar:

• Use eye protection that blocks wind from the sides when you’re outside.
• Keep heater and dashboard vents off your face.
• Put a small humidifier near the bed and, if allowed, near your desk.
• Blink fully and look away from screens every so often.
• Carry the bottle in an inside pocket, not a cold truck or locker by the water.

Dry eyes from cold air explains more about what winter air does to the tear film.

Using Quell in Duluth

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, the layer that dry heated air and cold wind both work against. The directions are: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, whatever the season.

Storage is worth a plan when lows average 2.4°F in January. The label says: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A bottle left in a car or an unheated porch through a winter night will be far outside that. If it gets cold, let it warm indoors and check it before use against the label’s line: If this product changes color. And as always, follow the handling rule: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Ordering Quell to Duluth

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, to addresses across the US, including Duluth and the rest of Minnesota. Shipping is $10.00, free on 3 or more bottles. No delivery date is promised, and a northern Minnesota winter can slow any package, so order ahead. The Duluth page and the Minnesota page have local details; the Minneapolis guide covers the Twin Cities.

If your eyes still bother you after time indoors with a humidifier running, or you notice pain or blurred vision that doesn’t clear, 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. Eye symptoms that need a doctor has more.