February 29: ORD

Today is February 29th. It's the 60th day of the year. 306 days remain.

Unless noted, the following data is based upon observations collected by the National Weather Service, Chicago, at O'Hare International Airport (ORD) between November 1978 and last year. Observations have been official at O'Hare since Thursday, January 17, 1980.

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the normal high is 39 and the normal low is 23. The 8-leap day averages are 40 and 22.

On the warm side, in 2000 the high was the near-record high of 64 (the record is 65, set in 1972) with a low of 44. In 2004 the high was 61 with a low of 32. Three of the eight highs have been 30s and two have been 60s. The remainder were one in the 10s, one in the 20s and one in the 40s. The record warmest low of 44 was set in 2000.

On the cool side, in 1980 the high was 17 with a low of 0. In 1996 the high was 24 with a low of 10. Two lows have been in the 10s, 20s and 30s. One low was in the 40s and 0s. The record low of 3 below occurred way back in 1884. The reord coolest high of 17 occurred in 1980.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Cystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:01 and sunrise is at 6:29. Sunset is at 17:43 and twilight ends at 18:11. The moon is waning crescent. Moonrise was at 1:54 and moonset is at 10:24.