Wednesday, July 1, 2009

July 1: ORD

Today is July 1st. It's the 182nd day of the year. 183 days remain. It's week 26 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 82 and the normal low is 61. I've calculated the 30-year averages at 82 and 59.


On the hot side, in 2002 the high was 93 with a low of 75.
The other 90s high of note was 97 in 1991. The record high of 103 was set in 1956. The record warmest low of 78 occurred back in 1931. 23 of the last 30 highs were: 70s (11) and 80s (12). Six highs were in the warmer 90s. One high was in the cooler 60s.

In looking back through the years to the first July at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1974 the high was 89 with a low of 57, a 32 degree spread. In 1970 the high was 94 with a low of 76, a hot day. In 1966 the high was 92 with a low of 61, a 31 degree spread. In 1965 the high was 81 with a low of 40, a 41 degree spread and cool day. In 1963 the high was 95.

More recently, there were large spreads of:
34 degrees in 1989 (89/55), 33 degrees in 1979 (84/51), 33 degrees in 1992 (91/58), 30 degrees in 1982 (76/46) and 30 degrees in 1991 (97/67).

On the cool side, no days had means of at least 11.5 degrees below normal. The cool lows were the record low of 46 in 1982 and a low of 49 in 1984. These were the only 40s lows. The coolest highs were 66 in 1986 (the only 60s high) and 70 in 1981. The record coolest high of 61 occurred back in 1924. 27 of the last 30 lows were: 50s (14) and 60s (13). Two lows were in the cooler 40s and one low was in the warmer 70s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight began at 4:46 and sunrise was at 5:21. Sunset is at 20:33 and twilight ends at 21:08. Tomorrow twilight begins at 4:47 and sunrise is at 5:21. There's a total of 15 hours, 12 minutes of daylight today and 16 hours, 22 minutes between twilights. The moon is waxing gibbous, having reached first quarter a couple of days ago at 6:28. Illumination was 68% at midnight, will be 73% at noon and 77% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 0:59. Moonrise is at 15:46 today. Moonset is at 1:29 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 13 minutes which is 41 minutes shorter than yesterday.

Independence Day is in three days. My mom celebrates a birthday in nine days. A niece of mine, Katy, celebrates a birthday in 17 days. -Bernie-

No comments: