September 29: ORD

Today is September 29th. It's the 273rd day of the year. 93 days remain. It's week 40 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 69 and the normal low is 49. The 29-year averages are 70 and 49.

On the warm side, in 1982 the high was 83 with a low of 63. In 2002 the high was 84 with a low of 60. In 1979 the high was 85 with a low of 58. In 1986 the high was 77 with a low of 64. In 1995 the high was 80 with a low of 58. Other warm highs were 81 in 1983 and 80 last year. Another warm low was 57 in 1988. The record high of 99 was set in 1953 and the record warmest low of 69 was set in 1904. 25 of the last 29 highs have been in the 60s (10), 70s (9) and 80s (6).

The large spreads were 31 degrees in 1983 (81/50) and 30 degrees last year (80/50).

On the cool side, in 1984 the high was 55 with the record low of 32. In 1993 the high was 54 with a low of 37. Two years ago the high was 59 with a low of 37. In 1992 the high was 62 with a low of 36. Another cool high was 58 in 2003. Another cool low was 39 in 1991. The record coolest high of 44 was set way back in 1899. 21 of the last 29 lows have been 40s (9) and 50s (12). Today is also the runner-up date of the first freeze. This happened back in 1984. The earliest first freeze was on September 22 in 1995.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:21 and sunrise is at 6:49. Sunset is at 18:37 and twilight ends at 19:05. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:22 and sunrise is at 6:50. There's a total of 11 hours, 48 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 44 minutes between twilights. The moon is new this morning at 3:12. Illumination was 0% at midnight, will be 0% at noon and 1% at midnight tonight. Moonrise (of what you can see) is at 7:11 this morning. Moonset is at 18:28 (you won't see this) tonight and moonrise is at 8:18 tomorrow morning (again, not visible). Moonlight time is 11 hours, 17 minutes today. The autumnal equinox was a week ago at 10:44.

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