September 21: ORD

Today is September 21st. It's the 265th day of the year. 101 days remain. It's week 39 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 72 and the normal low is 52. The 29-year averages are 71 and 51.

On the hot side, last year the high was 88 with a low of 64. In 1980 the high was 79 with a low of 69. In 1986 the high was 82 with a low of 60. Another hot high was 87 in 2005. The record high of 92 was set in 1970 and the record warmest low of 76 was set in 1931. Quite a line-up of high temperatures over the last 29 years: 13 have been 60s and there have been seven in the 70s and seven in the 80s.

The large spreads (differences of 30 degrees or more between the daily high and low) were: 34 degrees in 2005 (87/53), 32 degrees in 1984 (80/48) and 31 degrees in 1994 (82/51).

On the cool side, in 1995 the high was the record coolest high of just 50 degrees along with a low of 41. In 1983 the high was another 50s high of 53 with the co-record low of 39. The other co-record low of 39 occurred in 1991 and yet another way back in 1889. In 1982 the high was 61 with a low of 41. In 1999 the was also 61 with a low of 41. Another cool high was 62 in 1987. Another cool low was 40 two years ago. 15 of the last 29 lows have been 50s and nine have been 40s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:12 and sunrise is at 6:40. Sunset is at 18:51 and twilight ends at 19:19. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:13 and sunrise is at 6:41. There's a total of 12 hours, 11 minutes of daylight today and 13 hours, 7 minutes between twilights. The moon is waning gibbous and will reach the last quarter tonight at 4 minutes past midnight. Illumination was 61% at midnight, will be 55% at noon and 50% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 14:13 this afternoon and moonrise is at 22:52 tonight. Moonlight time is 15 hours, 21 minutes today. The autumnal equinox is tomorrow at 10:44.

The following events are all 22 days away on October 13th: Columbus Day, my parents' 46th wedding anniversary and a brother-in-law, Buddy, will be turning 33. -Bernie-