November 9: ORD

Today is November 9th. It's the 314th day of the year. 52 days remain. It's week 46 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 50 and the normal low is 35. The 30-year averages are 51 and 36.

On the warm side, in 1999 the high was the record high of 74 with the record warmest low of 59. Three years later in 2002 the high was 63 with a low of 53. Two years ago the high was 68 with a low of 47. In 1984 the high was 62 with a low of 49. The year before (1983) the high was 62 with a low of 46. Three years ago the high was 66 with a low of 41. In 1978 the high was 63 with a low of 43. In 1980 the high was 62 with a low of 44. 14 of the 30 highs have been 40s. Six highs have been 50s and seven highs have been 60s. Two highs have been 30s and one high was in the 70s (1999). Today we will have our third high in the 30s.

In looking back through the years to the first November at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable. In 1972 the high was 45 with a low of 41 (a four degree spread). In 1969 the high was 48 with a low of 41 (a seven degree spread). In 1964 the high was 71 with a low of 45. It looks like they had a nice warm streak going there in 1964, like we had earlier this month.

More recently, the small spreads were four degrees in 1982 (46/42), five degrees in 1997 (45/40), six degrees in 1990 (40/34) and six degrees in 2000 (42/36). The large spread was 31 degrees in 1995 (48/17).

On the cold side, in 1991 the high was 37 with the record low of 14. Five years earlier, in 1986, the high was also 39 with a low of 21. In 2003 the high was 41 with a low of 20. Other cold lows were 17 in 1995, 24 in 1993 and 26 in 1981. The record coolest high of 31 was set in 1957. 26 of the 30 lows have been in the 20s (8), 30s (7) and 40s (11). Two lows have been in the 10s (1991 and 1995) and two lows have been in the 50s. The morning low at O'Hare today was 35 because of the cloud cover but our daily low will probably be lower 'cause it'll happen between sunset and midnight. Today will wind up being one of the coldest November 9ths we've ever had.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:07 and sunrise is at 6:37. Sunset is at 16:37 and twilight ends at 17:07. Twilight begins tomorrow at 6:08 and sunrise is at 6:38. There's a total of 10 hours of daylight today and 11 hours between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous. The full Beaver moon is Thursday at 0:17. Illumination was 80% at midnight, will be 84% at noon and 88% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 2:16. Moonrise is at 14:22 this afternoon and moonset is at 3:28 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 11 hours, 54 minutes today.

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