July 11: ORD

Today is July 11th. It's the 193rd day of the year. 173 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 Thu. Jan. 17, 1980.

Before this, Midway International Airport (MDW) was the official station of record from Wed. July 1, 1942 to Thu. Jan. 17, 1980. Before July 1, 1942, records were official at various locations in the city going all the way back to Mon. Oct. 16, 1871. Records before this (back to Sat. Oct. 15, 1870) were lost during the Great Chicago Fire which began on the evening of Sun. Oct. 8, 1871.

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the normal high is 83 and the normal low is 63. The 29-year averages are 83 and 62.

On the hot side, in 1980 the high was 95 with the lone 70s low of 72. In 1987 the high was 91 with a low of 69. In 1979 the high was 90 with a low of 69. In 1983 the high was 93 with a low of 65. In 1995 the high was 89 with a low of 69. The high was 90 in 1988. Warm lows include 69 in 1986, 68 in 1989 and 67 two years ago. The record high and record warmest low were both set in 1936: 97 and 80. 24 of the past 29 highs have been in the 70s (10) and 80s (14).

On the cool side, in 1996 the high was 82 with the record low of 50 (former record was 51 in 1978). In 1999 the high was 81 with the a low of 52. Other cool highs include 73 in 1990, 74 in 2002 and 75 in 2000. The record coolest high of 65 was set way back in 1873. 22 of the 29 lows so far have been in the 60s.

Note: It's been 20 years since the last high in the 90s (90 in 1988) and it was ten years between highs of 89 (1995 to 2005).

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 4:54 and sunrise is at 5:27. Sunset is at 20:30 and twilight ends at 21:04. There's a total of 15 hours, 3 minutes of sunlight and 16 hours, 10 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous with 60% visible at midnight and 65% visible at noon. Moonrise is at 15:03 and moonset is at 0:46 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 18 minutes today. The moon was at the first quarter on Wednesday at 23:35.

My niece will celebrate her 14th in seven days. Happy birthday Katy! -Bernie-