December 14: ORD

Today is December 14th. It's the 349th day of the year. 17 days remain. It's week 50 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 35 and the normal low is 21. The 30-year averages are 37 and 23.

On the warm side, two years ago the high was 50 with a low of 35. In 1993 the high was 44 with a low of 38, a six degree spread. In 1984 the high was 45 with a low of 32. In 1995 the high was 45 with a low of 31. In 1999 the high was 40 with a low of 36, a four degree spread. Other warm highs were 47 in both 1998 and 1988. The last time it hit 50 degrees or higher was in 1975 when it was 64 at O'Hare, 66 at Midway, 58 at Marengo and 58 at Rockford. The record high of 66 and record warmest low of 47 occurred in 1975. 15 of the last 30 highs were 30s, nine highs were 40s, three were 20s, two were 10s and one was in the 50s.

In looking back through the years to the first December at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable. In 1977 the high was 36 with a low of 33, a three degree spread. In 1975 the high was 64 with a low of 44, a bonus 60s day. The record high was 66 at Midway this day. In 1974 the high was 35 with a low of 31, a four degree spread. In 1965 the high was 35 with a low of 31, a four degree spread. In 1963 the high was 11 with a low of -6, a cold day. In 1962 the high was 26 with a low of 2, a cold day. In 1959 the high was 40 with a low of 33, a seven degree spread. In 1958 the high was 12 with a low of -3, yet another cold day.

More recently, we had small spreads of six degrees in 1992 (32/26) and 2003 (31/25). Spreads of seven degrees occurred in 2001 (38/31), 2002 (38/31) and 2005 (35/28).

On the cold side, in 1985 the high was 16 with the near record low of -8. The record low of -9 occurred in 1901. In 1989 the high was 18 with a low of -3. In 2000 the high was 26 with a low of 7. The record coldest high of 5 was set in 1903. 15 of the last 30 lows were 20s, seven were 30s, five were 10s, two were negative zeros and one was a zeros low.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:43 and sunrise is at 7:15. Sunset is at 16:22 and twilight ends at 16:54. There's a total of 9 hours, 7 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 11 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:44 and sunrise is at 7:15. The full Cold moon was Friday at 10:37. Illumination was 96% at midnight, will be 94% at noon and 90% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 9:21 and moonrise is at 18:47. Moonset is at 10:01 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 14 hours, 34 minutes today.

Today is a major snow day in O'Hare's history. In 1987, 1.1 inches fell. This was the first day of a two day, 9.1 inch storm. In 1973, 0.3 inches fell. This was the second day of part of 17.6 inches that fell through the 20th which was 94% of the month's total of 18.8 inches. Midway Airport in 1951 recorded a snowfall of 10 inches on today's date.

A sister of mine, Regina, is celebrating a birthday today and Bill of Rights day is tomorrow. Christmas Eve is in ten days and Christmas Day is in 11 days. -Bernie-