December 25: ORD

Today is December 25th. It's the 360th day of the year. Six days remain. It's week 52 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 32 and the normal low is 17. The 30-year averages are 29 and 13.

On the warm side, in 1982 the high was the record high of 64 with a low of 36. In 1994 the high was 52 with a low of 24. Other warm lows were 33 three years ago, 30 two years ago, 29 in 1987 and 28 in 1979. The record warmest low of 46 was set in 1936. 23 of the last 30 highs were 30s (12), 20s (6) and 10s (5). On the warmer side, two highs were 40s, one was a 50s high and one was a 60s high. On the colder side, two highs were 0s and one high was in the negative 0s.

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 14 with a low of -2, a cold day. In 1975 the high was 36 with a low of 31, a five degree spread. In 1973 the high was 40 with a low of 37, a three degree spread. In 1972 the high was 35 with a low of 31, a four degree spread. In 1969 the high was 28 with a low of 21, a seven degree spread. In 1964 the high was 27 with a low of 23, a four degree spread.

More recently, we had small spreads of three degrees three years ago (36/33), six degrees in 1986 (32/26), six degrees in 2002 (29/23), seven degrees in 1987 (36/29) and seven degrees two years ago (37/30).

On the cold side, in 1983 the high was the record coldest high of -5 with the record low of -17. Two years later, in 1985, the high was 2 with a low of -11. Five years earlier, in 1980, the high was 17 with a low of -8. Two decades later, in 2000, the high was 17 with a low of -7. Four years before that, in 1996, the high was 9 with a low of 1. A dozen years before that, in 1984, the high was 19 with a low of -3. In 1993 the high was 18 with a low of 5. In 1990 the high was 28 with a low of -1. Other cold highs were 19 in 2004 and 22 in 2001. 18 of the last 30 lows were 10s (11) and 20s (7). On the colder side, three lows were 0s, four lows were negative 0s and two lows were negative 10s. On the warmer side, three lows were in the 30s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:49 and sunrise is at 7:21. Sunset is at 16:27 and twilight ends at 16:59. There's a total of 9 hours, 6 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 10 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:49 and sunrise is at 7:21. The new moon is coming up in two days at 6:22. The moon is waning crescent. Illumination was 5% at midnight, will be 3% at noon and 2% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 6:05 and moonset is at 14:44. Moonrise is at 6:58 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 8 hours, 39 minutes today.

Today is a major snow day in O'Hare's history. Actually, not today. The next one is in a couple of days and it occurred way back in 1894!

Christmas Day is today, New Year's Eve is in six days and New Year's Day is in seven days. -Bernie-