Dry eyes in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

In Sioux Falls, dry eyes usually come from two sources: winter heating and spring wind. NOAA’s normals show about 25 nights a year below zero and a heating season that runs from October into April, while April brings the windiest weather and some of the driest afternoons. Block the wind outdoors, add moisture to heated rooms, blink fully at screens, and use a lubricating drop as its label directs.

Sioux Falls weather in NOAA’s numbers

The 1991 to 2020 normals for the Sioux Falls airport station, on the north side of the city, describe a classic northern plains climate with big swings between seasons:

• January averages a high of 27.2°F and a low of 8.5°F.
• July averages a high of 85.3°F, and about 15 days a year reach 90°F.
• About 25 nights a year fall below zero, and about 162 reach freezing.
• The high stays below freezing on about 66 days.
• Normal snowfall is 45.3 inches.
• Of 27.85 inches of yearly precipitation, only 2.26 fall from December through February, against 10.82 from June through August.

That last point surprises people who picture deep snow. Winter here is cold but light on moisture, and January brings just 0.60 inches of precipitation on average. Cold, thin air comes into the house, the furnace warms it, and the result is indoor air that leaves eyes feeling tight and gritty by evening.

Why are my eyes so dry in a South Dakota winter?

NOAA puts the Sioux Falls heating load at about 7,250 heating degree days a year, so forced-air furnaces run hard for months. Each time the blower kicks on, a stream of warm, dry air crosses the room. Eyes that sit in that stream, at a desk under a ceiling register or on a couch near a floor vent, lose water from the tear film faster than eyes in still air.

• Move a favorite chair or a desk so no register blows straight at it.
• Run a cleaned humidifier in the bedroom, where you spend the most hours.
• Turn down the thermostat a little at night; cooler air feels less parching.
• Point car vents at your hands during the drive on Interstate 29 or 229, not at your eyes.

April wind on the eastern plains

NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data table of average wind speeds lists April as the windiest month at the Sioux Falls station and August as the calmest. Spring also brings some of the driest afternoons: NOAA’s humidity table gives an average afternoon relative humidity of 53 percent in both April and May, the lowest of the year, against 70 percent on a December afternoon.

That combination of moving air and lower humidity is what pulls moisture off the eye fastest. Open farm fields to the west and south have little to slow a spring wind before it reaches town, and bare soil before planting adds fine dust. If you walk the bike trail along the Big Sioux River, coach a spring soccer game or work outdoors, wraparound sunglasses do more than any drop to keep wind and grit off your eyes.

Falls Park, the river trail and summer days

The city says more than a million residents and visitors come to Falls Park each year, where the Big Sioux River tumbles over rock just north of downtown. A morning at the falls can feel pleasantly misty, but a long summer day elsewhere in town is a different story. July afternoons approach the mid-80s, and offices, stores and cars run their air conditioning hard. AC dries the air just as a furnace does, so the eye habits that help in January help in July too.

Sioux Falls routines that wear on the eyes

• Long shifts in the city’s hospitals and clinics, under bright lights and steady ventilation.
• Office work at banks and back-office centers, where hours of screen time cut down blinking.
• Weekend drives to the lakes, windows open and wind across your face.
• Sitting through a youth hockey tournament in a chilly rink, then stepping out into colder air.
• Harvest season in surrounding Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, when combines and grain trucks raise dust along the section roads.

Keeping a bottle in the right place

Quell’s label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A Sioux Falls winter puts a parked car well below that range for weeks, and a closed car in July can climb above it. Keep the bottle in the house, in a desk drawer at work, or in a bag you bring inside. Keeping spare bottles of eye drops covers where an extra bottle belongs. If one does freeze or overheat, look at it first: If this product changes color.

What Quell is and isn’t

Its Uses read: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. The directions are Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, and the active ingredients are Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%). Check the full Drug Facts before you start, and note the caution about egg or bird allergies.

Persistent dryness deserves an eye exam rather than more drops. Working out the cause and what to do about it is an eye doctor’s job, and the label’s own advice is plain: 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.

Ordering Quell to Sioux Falls

Quell ships to South Dakota from Brentwood, Tennessee. Standard shipping is $10.00, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free. Checkout works as a guest, and there’s no subscription to cancel later. No delivery date is promised, so reorder before the bottle runs low. See the Sioux Falls page and the South Dakota page for more.