October 13: ORD

Today is October 13th. It's the 287th day of the year. 79 days remain. It's week 42 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 63 and the normal low is 43. The 29-year averages are 63 and 41.

On the warm side, in 1995 the high was 83 with a low of 52 (a 31 degree spread). In 1996 the high was 77 with a low of 56. In 2000 the high was 78 with a low of 54. Other warm highs were 81 in 1989, 74 in 1997 and 73 in 2003. Other warm lows were 60 in 1984, 55 in 2001 and 53 in 2004. Other pre-1979 warm days at O'Hare were 1975 (87/64), 1968 (80/59), 1962 (81/47) and 1960 (79/61). The record high of 88 was set in 1975 and the record warmest low of 67 was set in 1920. 26 of the 29 highs have been in the 50s (11), 60s (9) and 70s (6).

The other large spreads were a huge 40 degrees in 1989 (81/41), 32 degrees in both 1987 (65/33) and 2003 (73/41) and 30 degrees in both 1980 (58/28) and 1997 (74/44). The three small spreads were 6 degrees in 1984 (66/60), 7 degrees in 1986 (47/40) and 9 degrees in 2004 (62/53).

On the cool side, in 1988 the high was 53 with the record low of 25. In 1993 the high was 53 with a low of 28. Two years ago the high was 50 with a low of 32. In 2002 the high was 50 with a low of 33. Another cool low was 28 in 1980. Other cool highs were 47 degrees in 1986 and 52 in 1979. The record coolest high of 45 was set back in 1909. 13 of the 29 lows were in the 40s. Seven lows were in the 30s and another five were 50s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:36 and sunrise is at 7:04. Sunset is at 18:14 and twilight ends at 18:42. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:37 and sunrise is at 7:05. There's a total of 11 hours, 10 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 6 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous, heading towards the full Hunter's moon tomorrow at 15:02. Illumination was 97% at midnight, will be 98% at noon and 99% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 5:40 this morning. Moonrise is at 17:23 this afternoon and moonset is at 6:54 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 12 hours, 17 minutes today.

The following events are all today: Columbus Day, my parents' 46th wedding anniversary and a brother-in-law, Buddy, is turning 33. -Bernie-