September 1: ORD

Today is September 1st. It's the 245th day of the year. 121 days remain. It's week 36.

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 78 and the normal low is 58. The 29-year averages are 81 and 59.

On the hot side, in 2000 the high was 93 with a low of 67. In 1990 the high was 89 with a low of 67. In 1979 the high was 85 with a low of 68. In 1984 the high was 96 with a low of 57 (a 39 degree difference). The record high of 101 was set in 1953 and the record warmest low of 76 was set in 1973. 24 of the 29 highs have been in the 80s (16) and 70s (8).

On the cool side, in 1994 the high was 68 with a low of 50. In 2001 the high was 67 with a low of 52. Another cool high was 65 degrees in 2003. Other cool lows were 50 in both 1987 and 1992. The record low of 45 was set in 1949 and the record coolest high of 62 was set in 1909. A tight race for the lead in low temps over the last 29 years: 15 have been 50s and 14 have been 60s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 5:50 and sunrise is at 6:19. Sunset is at 19:26 and twilight ends at 19:55. Twilight begins tomorrow at 5:51 and sunrise is at 6:20. There's a total of 13 hours, 7 minutes of daylight today and 14 hours, 5 minutes between twilights. The moon was new Saturday at 14:58. Illumination was 2% at midnight, 4% at noon and 7% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 8:20 and moonset is at 20:03. Moonrise is at 9:28 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 11 hours, 43 minutes today.

Labor Day is today. Grandparent's Day is in six days and Patriot's Day is in ten days. -Bernie-