August 2: ORD

Today is August 2nd. It's the 215th day of the year. 151 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 83 and the normal low is 64. The 29-year averages are 86 and 64.

On the hot side, in 1988 the high was 100 with the record warmest low of 79. Two years ago the high was 97 with a low of 77. In 1987 the high was 96 with a low of 74. Other hot highs include the record high of 101, set in 1991 (since the low was 67, the mean was just 10 degrees above normal and the spread between the high and low was 34 degrees), 92 degrees (1997 & 2005) and 90 in 1984. Other warm lows were 73 in 2001 and 70 (1995 and last year). 15 of the 29 highs so far have been 80s, six have been in the 70s and six in the 90s. In 2001, it took me 1:20:40 to get home because the outbound Kennedy expressway became flooded in the morning as a deluge of rain (1.21 inches at ORD) created two big lakes of water in what's known as the spaghetti bowl (where several highways merge) and I couldn't drive fast in the ponds because of hydroplaning.

On the cool side, in 1985 the high was 77 with the record low of 51. In 1994 the high was 77 with a low of 56. In 1996 the high was 77 with a low of 57. In 1992 the high was 79 with a low of 58. In 1993 the high was 79 with a low of 59. The other 70s high was 79 in 1995. Five of the six 70s highs occurred between 1992 and 1996. All of the 70s highs were in the upper range (77, 78 and 79 degrees). The record coolest high of 63 was set in 1927. 15 of the 29 lows have been 60s and there have been eight 50s and six 70s lows.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:16 and sunrise is at 5:48. Sunset is at 20:11 and twilight ends at 20:42. Twilight begins at 5:17 tomorrow and sunrise is at 5:49. There's a total of 14 hours, 23 minutes of daylight today and 15 hours, 26 minutes between twilights. The moon is new as of 5:13 yesterday. Illumination was 1% at midnight, 2% at noon and 4% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 7:09 and moonset is at 20:56. Moonrise is at 8:22 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 13 hours, 47 minutes today.

In 17 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. -Bernie