August 11: ORD

Today is August 11th. It's the 224th day of the year. 142 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 82 and the normal low is 63. The 29-year averages are 79 and 62.

On the hot side, in 1995 the high was 93 with a low of 72. In 1988 the high was 92 with a low of 72. Other warm highs were 93 in 2002, 89 last year and 88 in 1993. Another warm low was 68 two years ago. The record high of 98 was set in 1941 and the record warmest low was set three years later (in 1944) at 77 degrees. 24 of the 29 highs have been 70s (14) and 80s (10).

On the cool side, in 2004 the record coolest high of 62 occurred with a low of 53 (the previous record coolest high was 65 in 1903). In 1982 the high was 77 with the record low of 47. In 1979 the high was 71 with a low of 54. The other cool 60s high was 67 in 1994. Other two cool 50s lows were 54 in both 1986 and 1991. 19 of the 29 lows have been 60s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:26 and sunrise is at 5:57. Sunset is at 19:59 and twilight ends at 20:30. Twilight tomorrow begins at 5:28 and sunrise is at 5:58. There's a total of 14 hours, 2 minutes of daylight today and 15 hours, 4 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous. The full Sturgeon moon is this coming Saturday at 16:16. The fraction of moon illumination was 72% at midnight, will be 76% at noon and 80% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 0:33, moonrise is at 16:53 and moonset is at 1:24 tomorrow. There's 7 hours, 40 minutes of moonlight today.

In eight days, my tennis coach, Bob Finder, will be 76 years old. He is a testament that age has nothing to do with ability and performance. He is a master of the sport and is a shining example of the wealth of knowledge our elders can give us, provided we just take the time to listen. -Bern