January 16: ORD

Today is January 16th. It's the 16th day of the year. 349 days remain. It's week 3 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 29 and the normal low is 14. The 30-year averages are 32 and 15.

On the warm side, in 1980 the high was 56 with a low of 42. The record warmest low is 42, set back in 1913. Since the official station in 1980 was not O'Hare, this low of 42 in 1980 is not considered the official record warmest low. A decade later, in 1990, the high was the record high of 57 with a low of 36. A couple of years earlier, in 1988, the high was 46 with a low of 32. Three years ago (2006) the high was 47 with a low of 30. Two decades before, in 1986, the high was 50 with a low of 18, a 32 degree spread. In 1995 the high was 36 with a low of 31, a five degree spread. A year later, in 1996, the high was 43 with a low of 22. Another warm high was 42 in 1989. Other warm lows were 26 in both 1998 and 2001. 23 of the last 30 highs were: 20s (9), 30s (8) and 40s (6). On the warmer side, three highs were 50s. On the colder side, four highs were 10s and one high was in the single digits.

In looking back through the years to the first January at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable. In 1977 the high was -4 with a low of -17, a cold day. The record coldest high of -7 was set this year (1977). It's unusual that Midway had a lower reading than O'Hare. In 1970 the high was 37 with a low of 31, a six degree spread. In 1969 the high was 37 with a low of 34, a three degree spread. In 1963 the high was 17 with a low of -12, another very cold day. In 1961 the high was 31 with a low of 27, a four degree spread.

More recently, we had small spreads of four degrees in 1998 (30/26), five degrees in 2001 (31/26) and five degrees in 2004 (29/24).

On the cold side, in 1982 the high was 8 with the record low of -25, a 33 degree spread. Other lows in 1982 were as follows: Rockford: -24, DeKalb and Marengo: -17, Midway, Elgin and Barrington: -16, Wheaton: -15. In 1994 the high was 10 with a low of -16. A decade earlier, in 1984, the high was 18 with a low of -6. In 1992 the high was 27 with a low of -12, a 39 degree spread. In 2005 the high was 14 with a low of 3. In 1979 the high was 24 with a low of -7, a 31 degree spread. A couple of locations in 1979 were a lot colder than Midway's -7. They were -24 at Elgin and -21 at Rockford. In 1997 the high was 22 with a low of -4. The record coldest high of -7 was set in 1977. 11 of the last 30 lows were 20s. 14 lows were colder: negative 20s (1), negative 10s (2), negative single digits (3), single digits (3) and 10s (aka teens)(5). Five lows were warmer: 30s (4) and 40s (1). The Weather Channel is predicting that today's high will be only 4 and it's -21 in Crystal Lake now, so this will go down as one of the coldest January 16th's.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:48 and sunrise is at 7:19. Chicago's start of twilight and sunrise times are three and four minutes earlier, repectively. Sunset is at 16:48 and twilight ends at 17:19. Chicago's sunset and end of twilight times are two minutes earlier. There's a total of 9 hours, 29 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 31 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:48 and sunrise is at 7:18. The moon is waning gibbous and heading towards the last quarter tomorrow at 20:46. Illumination was 69% at midnight, will be 64% at noon and 59% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 10:06 and moonrise is at 23:43. Moonlight time is 10 hours, 23 minutes.

Today is a major day in O'Hare's snow history. In 1979, 0.2 inches fell. This was the sixth day of a 21.7 inch, seven day stretch of snow. This storm changed Chicago politics. The slow response that the city had to cleaning up after the storm was blamed on Mayor Michael Bilandic and his administration. This caused him to lose in the primary election to the eventual new mayor, Jayne Byrne. At O'Hare on the 13th, 15.3 inches fell while at Midway, 16.5 inches fell. This blizzard closed down the city for several days.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is in three days. The Presidential inauguration is in four days. My brother will be celebrating a birthday in a week and a day. -Bernie-