August 24: ORD

Today is August 24th. It's the 237th day of the year. 129 days remain. It's the start of the 35th week of the year.

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 80 and the normal low is 61. The 29-year averages are 81 and 62.

On the hot side, three years back to back to back were the hottest: first place was 1992 as the high was 88 with a low of 69. Second place was 1994 as the high was 87 with a low of 69. Third place was 1993 as the high was 87 with a low of 68. Other highs of note were the lone 90s high of 90 degrees in 1983 and a high of 87 in 1991. There have been no upper 80s highs (or warmer) from 1995 onward. There were two dual days: 1989 (73/67) and 1999 (74/67). These days are noted for their cool highs and warm lows, and thus means that are normal. The record high of 100 was set in 1947 and the record warmest low of 78 was set in 1975. 28 of the 29 highs have been 70s (10) and 80s (18). Many days just fell short of hottest honors.

On the cool side, in 1987 the high was 72 with a low of 51. In 1984 the high was 76 with a low of 51. Other cool highs were 73 in 1989 and 74 (1979, 1999). The record low of 48 was set in 1942 and the record coolest high of 63 was set way back in 1891. The breakdown of the lows has been 18 occurrences in the 60s and 11 occurrences in the 50s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:41 and sunrise is at 6:11. Sunset is at 19:40 and twilight ends at 20:09. Twilight begins tomorrow at 5:42 and sunrise is at 6:12. There's a total of 13 hours, 29 minutes of daylight today and 14 hours, 28 minutes between twilights. The moon reached last quarter yesterday at 18:50. Moon illumination was 47% at midnight, 41% at noon and 36% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 15:14 and moonrise is at 23:54. Moonlight time is 15 hours, 20 minutes today.

Labor Day is in eight days. Grandparent's Day is in 14 days and Patriot's Day is in 18 days. -Bernie-