October 1: ORD

Today is October 1st. It's the 275th day of the year. 91 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 48. The 29-year averages are 71 and 47.

On the warm side, in 2002 the high was 82 with a low of 67. In 2000 the high was 83 with a low of 61. Other warm highs were 81 in 1983 and 80 in 1980. Other warm lows were 57 in 1986 and 59 last year. In 1971 the record high of 92 and record warmest low of 71 were established. 23 of the 29 highs have been in the 60s (8) and 70s (15).

The large spreads were 38 degrees in 1981 (76/38), 36 degrees in 1987 (73/37), 35 degrees in 1983 (81/46), 34 degrees in 1979 (77/43), 33 degrees in 1992 (74/41), 32 degrees in 1984 (65/33) and 30 degrees two years ago (74/44). We had one dual day which was in 1986. In that year the high was 61 (one of the coolest) and low of 57 (one of the warmest). The spread of 4 degrees was the smallest for 10/1.

On the cool side, in 2003 the high was 53 with a low of 34. In 1985 the high was 55 with a low of 34. Other cool highs include 60 in back to back to back years ('97, '98 and '99). The highs were 61 in 1986 and 62 in 1994. Other cool lows were 33 in 1984, 37 in 1987 and 38 in 1981. We had a 16 year reprieve from 30s lows from 1987 to 2003. The record low of 32 was set in 1974 and the record coolest high of 49 was set in 1961. 22 of the 29 lows have been 40s (13) and 50s (9).

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:23 and sunrise is at 6:51. Sunset is at 18:34 and twilight ends at 19:02. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:24 and sunrise is at 6:52. There's a total of 11 hours, 43 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 39 minutes between twilights. The moon was new two morning's ago at 3:12. Illumination was 4% at midnight, will be 6% at noon and 9% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 9:24 this morning and moonset is at 19:17 tonight. Moonrise is at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 53 minutes today.

The following events are all 12 days away on October 13th: Columbus Day, my parents' 46th wedding anniversary and a brother-in-law, Buddy, will be turning 33. -Bernie-