November 6: ORD

Today is November 6th. It's the 311th day of the year. 55 days remain. It's week 45 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 52 and the normal low is 35. The 30-year averages are 50 and 34.

On the warm side, in 1996 the high was 63 with a low of 45. In 2004 the high was 65 with a low of 42. Another warm high was 68 in 1980. The record high of 75 was set in 1975 and the record warmest low of 63 was set in 1924. 21 of the 30 highs have been 40s (10) and 50s (11). Four highs have been 30s and five highs have been 60s. No highs made it into the 70s back to 1978. You have to look back to 1975 to see a 70s high.

In looking back through the years to the first November at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable. In 1977 the high was 59 with a low of 52 (a seven degree spread). In 1975 the high was the record high of 75 with a low of 57. In 1969 the high was 60 with a low of 30 (a 30 degree spread). In 1968 the high was 48 with a low of 45 (a three degree spread). In 1959 the high was 30 with a low of 24 (a six degree spread).

More recently, the large spread was 40 degrees in 1980 as the high was 68 with a low of 28. In 1997 the spread was four degrees (47/43), five degrees in 1988 (36/31), six degrees in 1992 (37/31), seven degrees in 1989 (49/42) and seven degrees in 2002 (43/36).

On the cold side, in 1993 the high was the record coolest high of 32 with a low of 20. The former record coolest high was 33 degrees in 1930. Two years earlier in 1991 the high was 36 with the record low of 19. Other cold lows were 23 in 1984 and 25 in 1982. Other cold highs were 36 in 1988 and 37 in 1992. 17 of the 30 lows have been in the 30s. Seven lows have been in the 40s, five in the 20s and one in the 10s (in 1991).

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:04 and sunrise is at 6:33. Sunset is at 16:40 and twilight ends at 17:10. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:05 and sunrise is at 6:34. There's a total of 10 hours, 7 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 6 minutes between twilights. The moon reached first quarter last night at 22:03. The moon is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 51% at midnight, will be 56% at noon and 61% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 13:15 this afternoon and moonset is a minute past midnight tomorrow. Moonlight time is 10 hours, 45 minutes today.

Veteran's Day is in five days. My sister-in-law celebrates a birthday in eight days. -Bernie-