August 25: ORD

Today is August 25th. It's the 238th day of the year. 128 days remain. It's 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 60. The 29-year averages are 82 and 63.

On the hot side, in 2003 the high was the co-record high of 95 degrees with a low of 71. In 1995 the high was 90 with a low of 73. In 1991 the high was the other co-record high of 95 with a low of 66. In 1993 the high was 89 with a low of 70. In 1992 the high was 89 with a low of 69. In 1994 the high was 90 with a low of 67. Have you noticed that five of the six hottest days occurred between 1991-1995? It's so. Another hot high was 87 degrees in 1980. Other warm lows were 69 in 2001 and 68 (1981, 1990). The record warmest low of 74 was set in 1959. 16 of the 29 highs have been in the 80s and eight have been in the 70s. The highs in 1953 and 1959 were also 95 degrees.

On the cool side, in 1987 the high was the only 60s high of 62 with a low of 56. In 1982 the high was 75 with a low of 54. In 1985 the high was 73 with a low of 56. In 1997 the high was 72 with a low of 58. The record low of 47 was set in 1917 and the record coolest high of 63 was set in 1965. There have been 17 lows in the 60s over the past 29 years and nine lows in the 50s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:42 and sunrise is at 6:12. Sunset is at 19:38 and twilight ends at 20:07. Twilight begins tomorrow at 5:44 and sunrise is at 6:13. There's a total of 13 hours, 26 minutes of daylight today and 14 hours, 25 minutes between twilights. The moon reached last quarter on Saturday at 18:50. Moon illumination was 36% at midnight, will be 30% at noon and 25% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was yesterday at six minutes 'til midnight and moonset is today at 16:19. Moonlight time is 16 hours, 19 minutes today.

Labor Day is in a week. Grandparent's Day is in 13 days and Patriot's Day is in 17 days. -Bernie-