February 20: ORD

Today is February 20th. It's the 51st day of the year. 314 days remain. It's week 8 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. ORD has been the official site of record for Chicago since Thursday, January 17, 1980.

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the normal high is 36 and the normal low is 21. I've calculated the 30-year averages at 41 and 24.

On the warm side, in 1983 the high was 61 with a low of 36. In 1994 the high was 57 with a low of 33. In 2002, the high was 54 with a low of 34. In 1996 the high was 53 with a low of 34. A year earlier, in 1995, the high was 50 with a low of 31. Other warm highs were 50 in 2003 and 48 in 1992. Other warm lows were 35 (1980, 1998) and 33 in 2004. The record high of 64 and record warmest low of 49 were set on the same day back in 1930. 23 of the last 30 highs were: 30s (11) and 40s (12). On the warmer side, five highs were 50s and one was in the 60s. On the colder side, one high was in the 10s (a.k.a. teens). Today's high is forecast to be in the 20s. We haven't had a high in the 20s since sometime before 1979.

In looking back through the years to the first February at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1976 the high was 56 with a low of 28, a bonus 50s day. In 1973 the high was 36 with a low of 30, a six degree spread. In 1966 the high was 17 with a low of -5, a cold day. In 1965 the high was 51 with a low of 23, a bonus 50s day. In 1963 the high was 30 with a low of -2, a 32 degree spread and another cold day. In 1959 the high was 21 with a low of -3, yet another cold one.

More recently, there were small spreads of six degrees on three occasions: in 1980 (41/35), 1989 (30/24) and 2005 (37/31). There was a spread of seven degrees in 1998 as the high was 42 with a low of 35.

On the cold side, last year the high was 19 with a low of 5. The record low of -9 and record coldest high of 7 were both set way back in 1896. 13 of the last 30 lows have been 30s. All of the other lows (17 of them) were colder: single digits (3), 10s (a.k.a. teens) (7) and 20s (7). In Crystal Lake our low today has been at least 3 degrees.

Today is a not a major day in Chicago's snow history.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:14 and sunrise is at 6:42. Sunset is at 17:33 and twilight ends at 18:01. Chicago's sunset/end of twilight times are three minutes earlier. There's a total of 10 hours, 51 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 47 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:12 and sunrise is at 6:41. The moon is waning crescent. Illumination was 20% at midnight, will be 17% at noon and 13% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 4:21 and moonset is at 13:15. Moonrise is at 4:57 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 8 hours, 54 minutes which is 15 minutes longer than yesterday.

Ash Wednesday is in five days. My birthday is in two weeks, one day. A sister of mine, Christina, has a birthday in two weeks, four days. -Bernie-