October 7: ORD

Today is October 7th. It's the 281st day of the year. 85 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 66 and the normal low is 45. The 29-year averages are 66 and 44.

On the warm side, last year the high was the record high of 87 with the record warmest low of 67. The former record high of 86 occurred in 1947. The former record warmest low of 66 occurred in 1914. In 1997 the high was 84 with a low of 63. In 1993 the high was 81 with a low of 58. In 1994 the high was 75 with a low of 61. Other warm highs were 80 in 2003 and 77 in 1983. Another warm low was 60 in 1984. Before the high of 81 in 1993, you have to go back 30 years to 1963 to find another high of 80 or higher. In 1963 the high was 81 with a low of 49. There were a few high temperatures that approached 80 on the way back to 1963 (the 77 in 1983, the 79 in 1970 and the 78 in 1966). 23 of the 29 highs have been in the 50s (7), 60s (9) and 70s (7).

The large spreads were 39 degrees in 2003 (80/41), 35 degrees in 1985 (71/36), 33 degrees in 1980 (74/41), 33 degrees in 2004 (76/43) and 32 degrees in 1983 (77/45). The small spreads were 5 degrees in 1984 (65/60), 7 degrees in 1995 (53/46) and 9 degrees in 1998 (60/51).

On the cool side, in 2000 the high was 49 with a low of 30. In 1987 the high was 49 with a low of 30. In 2001 the high was 52 with the record low was 29. The former record lows (of 30) were just mentioned. In 1991 the high was 57 with a low of 33. In 1989 the high was 55 with a low of 35. Other cool highs were 53 in 1995, 54 in 2005 and 55 in 2002. Other cool lows were 34 in 1988 and 36 in 1985. The record coolest high of 47 was set in 1896. 21 of the 29 lows were in the 30s (9) and 40s (12).

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:29 and sunrise is at 6:57. Sunset is at 18:24 and twilight ends at 18:52. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:31 and sunrise is at 6:59. There's a total of 11 hours, 27 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 23 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing crescent and will reached first quarter this morning at 4:04. Illumination was 49% at midnight, will be 54% at noon and 58% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 14:51 this afternoon and moonset is at 23:59 tonight. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 8 minutes today.

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