December 8: ORD

Today is December 8th. It's the 343rd day of the year. 23 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 22.

On the warm side, in 1987 the high was 58 a low of 38. In 1991 the high was 60 with a low of 36. Other warm highs were 49 in 1999, 48 in 1984, 47 in 1980, 47 in 1990 and 47 in 2001. Other warm lows were 36 in 1986, 36 in 2004 and 35 in 2003. The record high of 64 and record warmest low of 53 were both set back in 1946. 28 of the 30 highs were 20s (7), 30s (10) and 40s (11). One high was a 50s high and one high was a 60s high.

In looking back through the years to the first December at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable. In 1976 the high was 14 with a low of 4, a cold day. In 1975 the high was 33 with a low of 28, a five degree spread. In 1973 the high was 34 with a low of 28, a six degree spread. In 1972 the high was 28 with a low of 21, a seven degree spread. In 1971 the high was 44 with a low of 40, a four degree spread. In 1967 the high was 40 with a low of 38, a two degree spread. In 1958 the high was 13 with a low of -7, a very cold day. That low of -7 ties the record low set way back in 1882 but in 1958 O'Hare was not the official station of record.

More recently, we had small spreads of three degrees in 1996 (30/27), four degrees in 1992 (28/24), five degrees in 1986 (41/36), five degrees in 1997 (31/26), five degrees in 2004 (41/36) and six degrees in 1983 (26/20).

On the cold side, two years ago the high was 21 with a cold low of 4. In 2005 the high was 28 with a cold low of 3. In 1978 the high was 21 with a low of 11. In 1995 the high was 30 with a cold low of 4. In 2000 the high was 29 with a cold low of 7. Last year the high was 24 with a low of 13. Other cold lows were 12 in 1989 and 13 in 2002. Another cold high was 26 in 1983. The record low of -7 was set in way back 1882. The record coldest high of 8 was set in 1927. 20 of the last 30 lows were 20s (12) and 30s (8). On the really cold side, four lows were 0s and six lows were 10s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:38 and sunrise is at 7:10. Chicago's twilight begins three minutes earlier and sunrise is four minutes earlier. Sunset is at 16:21 and twilight ends at 16:53. Chicago's sunset is a minute earlier and twilight ends two minutes earlier. There's a total of 9 hours, 11 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 15 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:39 and sunrise is at 7:11. The moon is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 74% at midnight, will be 79% at noon and 83% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 2:17 and moonrise is at 13:10. Moonset is at 3:32 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 13 hours, 7 minutes today.

A sister of mine, Regina, will celebrate a birthday in six days and Bill of Rights day is in seven days. Christmas Eve is in 16 days and Christmas Day is in 17 days. -Bernie-