October 11: ORD

Today is October 11th. It's the 285th day of the year. 81 days remain. It's week 41 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 65 and the normal low is 44. The 29-year averages are 64 and 42.

On the warm side, in 2003 the high was 78 with a low of 54. In 1983 the high was 76 with a low of 50. In 1995 the high was 79 with a low of 46 (a 33 degree spread). Other warm highs (all 70s) were 79 in 1989, 76 in 1997, 73 in 2002 and 70 in 1986. Other warm lows were 55 in 2005 and 54 in 1984. There are no 80s highs from 1979-2007. What year produced one? Well, you have to go back to 1973 when the high was 82 along with the record warmest low was 66, nearly the same as the previous day in 1973 (81/65) and the day before that (81/63). That low of 66 was also the missing 60s low. In 1962 the high was 88 with a low of 65. That's almost 90 degrees in 1962! In 1961 it was close at 77 and 55. In 1960 the high was 80 with a low of 53. The record high is 87, set in 1928. 22 of the 29 highs have been in the 50s (10) and 60s (12). Seven highs have been in the 70s (all listed above).

The other large spreads were a huge 40 degrees in 1989 (79/39) and 31 degrees in 1997 (76/45). The small spreads were 5 degrees in 2005 (60/55), 8 degrees last year (54/46) and 9 degrees in 1982 (54/45).

On the cool side, in 1987 the high was 50 with a low of 29. In 1996 the high was 57 with the record low of 27 (a 30 degree spread). In 1988 the high was 51 with a low of 33. Other cool highs were 54 in three years (last year, two years ago and 1982). Other cool lows were 32 in both 1990 and 1993. The record coolest high of 41 was set way back in 1875. In 1875 readings were taken at Madison and LaSalle Streets. Therefore, a wind off the lake would've had a direct impact on this reading. 22 of the 29 lows were in the 30s (8) and 40s (14). The two 20s are mentioned here. Of the five 50s lows, the only one I haven't mentioned so far is 51 which occurred in 2001.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:34 and sunrise is at 7:02. Sunset is at 18:17 and twilight ends at 18:45. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:35 and sunrise is at 7:03. There's a total of 11 hours, 15 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 11 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 85% at midnight, will be 88% at noon and 92% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 3:19 this morning. Moonrise is at 16:37 this afternoon and moonset is at 4:29 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 10 hours, 42 minutes today.

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