Dry eyes in El Paso

El Paso sits in the Chihuahuan Desert, and its air is often very dry: the National Weather Service’s March 2026 report for the city logged an average relative humidity of 23 percent. Dry air, spring wind and dust all pull moisture off the surface of the eye. Quell’s label lists it For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye, and the directions don’t change with the weather: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.

What the weather records say about El Paso air

The National Weather Service office that covers El Paso sits just over the state line in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and it publishes a climate report at the end of each month. Two recent ones show how little moisture there is to go around.

• March 2026: average relative humidity of 23 percent, and 0.01 inches of rain against a 1991–2020 normal of 0.24 inches. The strongest gust of the month was 51 mph, on March 14.
• May 2026: average relative humidity of 28 percent, an average wind speed of 9.8 mph, and a peak gust of 48 mph on May 14.

The office’s monthly normals pages fill in the rest of the year. April’s normal rainfall is just 0.17 inches. January’s normal high is 58.9°F with a normal low of 33.7°F, so winter mornings are cold enough that most homes run the heat. By June the normal high reaches 97.4°F, and evaporative coolers and air conditioners take over.

Why spring is the season people notice

Late winter and spring bring the strong westerly winds El Pasoans know well, the kind that turn the sky over the Franklin Mountains tan with dust. Wind moves air across the eye faster, and the faster air moves over a wet surface, the faster that surface dries. Add grit in the air and a humidity reading in the 20s, and a walk across a parking lot on a March afternoon can leave your eyes feeling scratchy before you reach the door.

On a windy afternoon, a few small habits cut down how much of it reaches your eyes:

• Wraparound sunglasses block more side wind than flat lenses, which helps on the walk from the car or across a campus.
• Keep car windows up when dust is blowing on I-10 or Loop 375, and set the vents so they don’t aim at your face.
• Check the forecast before an early hike in the Franklins or a long afternoon outdoors; a wind advisory day is a day to plan around.
• Rinse your hands after being out in dust before you go anywhere near your eyes or the bottle.

Summer heat and the bottle itself

A normal June high of 97.4°F is well above the top of Quell’s storage range: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A parked car in El Paso gets much hotter than the air outside it, so a bottle left in the console or a door pocket can spend hours out of range. Carry it in a bag that comes inside with you, and keep the spare in a closet or drawer rather than in the garage. Can you leave eye drops in a hot car? goes into the details.

Indoors in summer, swamp coolers add moisture to the air while refrigerated air conditioning tends to remove it, so the same person can feel different depending on which kind of system a building runs. Sitting directly in the stream of a vent dries the eyes either way.

Where Quell fits into an El Paso day

The tear film has an oil layer on top, a water layer beneath it and mucus closest to the eye. The oil slows evaporation of the water underneath, and Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. The tear film’s oil layer explains how those layers work together.

Spacing the three daily drops around the parts of the day that are hardest on your eyes is one way to use the directions. Someone who commutes across town and works outdoors in the afternoon might use one at breakfast, one before heading back out after lunch, and one in the early evening. The label sets the number of drops, not the clock times, so pick times you’ll remember. Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination, which matters more on a dusty day when grit can settle on a bottle left open on a desk.

Ordering to El Paso

Quell ships within the United States from Brentwood, Tennessee, and El Paso addresses are no exception. Standard shipping is $10.00, and an order of 3 bottles ships free. There’s no delivery date promised, so order before your last bottle runs out rather than after. The El Paso page and the Texas page have more on ordering from the area.

When the dryness isn’t just the weather

Desert air explains a lot, but not everything. If your eyes still bother you after a calm, still week, or if anything changes in how you see, that’s a reason to see an eye doctor rather than wait for the wind to drop. The label is specific: 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.