You Prepared for RVing in Desert Heat, But What About Desert DRYNESS?

I even got nosebleeds!

If you already live in the desert and have low humidity all figured out, you can skip this post. This is for the people who are venturing into desert climates for the first time. Most people think about the higher temperatures during the day—and the low temperatures at night! But few people plan for the very low humidity in the desert.

Why does this matter?

There are quite a few good reasons you should be concerned about low humidity:

• Dehydration

• Nosebleeds

• Irritated airways

• Painfully dry eyes

• Itchy and peeling skin

• Dry and brittle hair

Your rig can also take a big hit from low humidity. It can cause seals to crack and peel, which can lead to leaks later on. Wood shrinkage can also happen in low humidity and your furniture might not hold up as well. Some RVers who store their rigs in the desert actually leave buckets of water inside to prevent this.

Low humidity can catch you by surprise.

Lone Mountain in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (2017)

Vegas was the first place I visited in the Desert Southwest. My friends in Nevada planned a hiking trip at Red Rocks and I was excited to go. I had only gone hiking in tropical and subtropical climates, so I was ecstatic to see what it would look like.

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, USA (2017)

I only ever take one bottle of water when I go hiking, but my friends packed an entire case. They explained that usually when you hike, you get hot, sweat, and then you develop a thirst. However, in areas with low humidity, that sweat evaporates almost immediately, so you’re not even aware of it. This can cause you to get dehydrated fast without recognizing it.

I barely felt thirsty at all on that hike, so they were right. But every so often, we would stop and force ourselves to take a drink. People in high altitudes—like Denver—often follow this same advice when trekking their trails.

Other times, the effects can be downright unpleasant.

An interesting experience for me is that the desert actually cured my dry eyes. I suffered intensely from allergies and dry eyes in Georgia, but I had no allergies in the desert.

What I got instead was nosebleeds and dry skin. The nosebleeds were not constant, but if I blew or cleaned my nose, there would always be spots of blood on the tissue. I could also see lesions and cracks sometimes inside my nose.

The dry skin also affected my hands, especially during the pandemic when we all had to wash and sanitize our hands more than usual. Dry skin is also more susceptible to burns, and my shoulders were always painfully peeling in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado.

The good news is, there are solutions to these problems.

After a few months in the desert, I adjusted pretty well to the dry air. I also learned how to make the RV more comfortable when family visited, as they adjusted to the dryness. For example, my mom often got nosebleeds and cracked lips when she RVed with me, though I had long stopped getting those after about six months.

So, what can you do to tackle desert dryness? Next week, I’ll tell paid subscribers some of the ways I monitored and managed the humidity levels in my RV.

See you next time! 👋🏽