July 19: ORD

Today is July 19th. It's the 201st day of the year. 165 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 84 and the normal low is 64. The 29-year averages are 86 and 65.

On the hot side, in 1991 the high was 99 with a low of 72. In 1986 the high was 95 with a low of 74. In 1987 the high was 93 with a low of 75. In 1983 the high was 96 with a low of 69. In 1981 the high was 87 with a low of 76. In 1998 the high was 91 with a low of 70. The high in 2005 was 92. Other warm lows were 73 in 1980 and 69 in 1999. The record high of 101 was set in 1930 and the record warmest low of 78 was set in 1977. 20 of the 29 highs have been 80s. There were two stretches of seven years between 90-degree highs: from 1991's 99 degrees to 1998's 91 degrees and from 1998 to 2005's 92 degrees.

On the cool side, in 2000 the high was the only 60s high of 69 with the low of 56. Our only two 70s highs were 71 in 1989 and 78 in 1985. The other cool 50s lows were 53 in 2003, 54 in 1984, 55 in 1979 and 58 in 1992. The record low of 50 was set way back in 1873 and the record coolest high of 65 was set in 1912. 18 of the 29 lows so far have been in the 60s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:01 and sunrise is at 5:34. Sunset is at 20:25 and twilight ends at 20:58. There's a total of 14 hours, 51 minutes of sunlight and 15 hours, 57 minutes between twilights. The moon is waning gibbous with 99% visible at midnight, 98% visible at noon and 96% visible at midnight tonight. The full Buck moon was yesterday morning at 2:59. Moonset was at 6:44 this morning. Moonrise is at 21:21 tonight and moonset is at 7:51 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 23 minutes today.

Parent's Day is in eight days. -Bernie-