December 7: ORD

Today is December 7th. It's the 342nd day of the year. 24 days remain. It's week 49 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 37 and the normal low is 23. The 30-year averages are 37 and 25.

On the warm side, in 1980 the high was 59 with the record warmest low of 45. In 2004 the high was 50 with a low of 41. In 1981 the high was 52 with a low of 38. Ten years later, in 1991, the high was 49 with a low of 39. Other warm lows were 35 in 2001, 34 in 1986, 34 in 1987, 34 in 1986 and 33 in 1979. The record high of 64 was set back in 1916. 22 of the 30 highs were 30s (12) and 40s (10). Three highs were 50s, three highs were 20s and two highs were 10s.

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 15 with a low of -1, a cold day. In 1976 the high was 19 with a low of 3, another cold day. In 1974 the high was 40 with a low of 35, a five degree spread. In 1971 the high was 44 with a low of 40, a four degree spread. In 1969 the high was 37 with a low of 33, a four degree spread. In 1966 the high was 46 with a low of 40, a six degree spread. In 1963 the high was 56 with a low of 22, a 34 degree spread. In 1958 the high was 14 with a low of 5, a cold day.

More recently, we had small spreads of two degrees in 1997 (31/29), four degrees in 1982 (36/32), four degrees in 1986 (38/34), six degrees last year (30/24) and seven degrees in 1992 (30/23).

On the cold side, in 2005 the high was 15 with a very cold low of 0. Two years ago the high was 17 with a low of 9. In 1984 the high was 27 with a low of 7. In 1989 the high was 23 with a low of 12. Another cold high was 26 in 1983. The record low of -6 was set in way back 1882 as was the record coldest high of 6. 13 of the last 30 lows were 20s. On the really cold side, three lows were 0s and four lows were 10s. The warmer lows were eight in the 30s and two in the 40s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:37 and sunrise is at 7:09. Sunset is at 16:21 and twilight ends at 16:53. There's a total of 9 hours, 12 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 16 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:38 and sunrise is at 7:10. The moon is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 64% at midnight, will be 69% at noon and 74% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 1:06 and moonrise is at 12:45. Moonset is at 2:17 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 12 hours, 21 minutes today.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is today. A sister of mine, Regina, will celebrate a birthday in seven days and Bill of Rights day is in eight days. Christmas Eve is in 17 days and Christmas Day is in 18 days. -Bernie-