October 9: ORD

Today is October 9th. It's the 283rd day of the year. 83 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 45. The 29-year averages are 63 and 45.

On the warm side, in 2001 the high was 73 with a low of 56. In 1979 the high was 75 with a low of 53. In 1982 the high was 68 with a low of 57. In 2007 the high was the warmest high for the date at 76 and the low was 49. Another warm low was 57 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 81 and the low was 63. That low of 63 was also the missing 60s low. 1969 and 1963 produced highs of 79 (close to 80). Back in 1966 the high was 83 with a low of 49. Remember that the prior day (in 1966) the high was 80 with a low of 55. In 1961 the high was 80 with a low of 56. The record high of 86 was set in 1949 and the record warmest low of 68 was set way back in 1879. 27 of the 29 highs have been in the 50s (9), 60s (10) and 70s (8).

The lone large spread of 30 degrees occurred in 1981 (62/32). The small spreads were 9 degrees in 1986 (53/44) and 6 degrees in both 1983 (56/50) and 1984 (63/57). In 1990 the spread was just 3 degrees (48/45).

On the cool side, in 1993 the high was 48 with a low of 32. In 2000 the high was 57 with the record low of 30. In 1989 the high was 58 with a low of 32. In 1979 the high was 54 with a low of 36. Other cool highs were 48 in 1990, 53 in 1986 and 54 in 1992. The record coolest high of 43 was set in 1964. 15 of the 29 lows were in the 40s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:32 and sunrise is at 7:00. Sunset is at 18:20 and twilight ends at 18:48. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:33 and sunrise is at 7:01. There's a total of 11 hours, 20 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 16 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 68% at midnight, will be 72% at noon and 77% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 1:05 this morning. Moonrise is at 15:50 this afternoon and moonset is at 2:12 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 15 minutes today.

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