January 19: ORD

Today is January 19th. It's the 19th day of the year. 346 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 31-year averages are 29 and 12.

On the warm side, in 2006 the high was 55 with a low of 27. In 1989 the high was 49 with a low of 25. Two years later, in 1991, the high was 44 with a low of 29. A decade earlier, in 1981, the high was 43 with a low of 28. Seven years later, in 1988, the high was 38 with a low of 33, a five degree spread. In 1995 the high was 36 with a low of 32, a four degree spread. Another warm low was 28 in 1986. The record high of 57 was set in 1933 and the record warmest low of 38 was set way back in 1880. 21 of the last 31 highs were: 20s (10) and 30s (11). On the warmer side, three highs were 40s and one high was in the 50s. On the colder side, three highs were in the 10s (aka teens) and three were 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 1978 the high was 28 with a low of 21, a seven degree spread. In 1977 the high was 16 with a low of 1, a cold day. In 1974 the high was 36 with a low of 35, a single degree spread. In 1973 the high was 48 with a low of 26, a warm day. In 1970 the high was 3 with a low of -11, cold day. In 1969 the high was 32 with a low of 26, a six degree spread. In 1968 the high was 36 with a low of 32, a four degree spread and warm day. In 1966 the high was 22 with a low of -7, a cold day. In 1964 the high was 45 with a low of 32, a warm day. In 1963 the high was a cold 10 degrees with a low of 3, a seven degree spread and cold day. In 1962 the high was 17 with a low of -2, a cold day.

More recently, we had a large spread of 38 degrees in 1992 as the high was 33 and the low was -5.

On the cold side, in 1994 the high was the record coldest high of 3 with a low of -19. In 1985 the high was 10 with the record low of -23, a 33 degree spread. A year earlier, in 1984, the high was 8 with a low of -13. Two years ago the high was 6 with a low of -3. A dozen years earlier, in 1996, the high was 13 with a low of 4. In 2004 the high was 18 with a low of 3. Other cold lows were -5 in 1992 and -1 in 1997. The lows are kind of interesting. Instead of having a majority of lows in two or three categories, they're kind of spread out. There's one in the negative 20s, two in the negative 10s, three in the negative single digits, six in the single digits, eight in the 10s (aka teens), nine in the 20s and two in the 30s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:47 and sunrise is at 7:17. Sunset is at 16:51 and twilight ends at 17:22. Chicago's sunset is at 16:50 and twilight ends at 17:20. There's a total of 9 hours, 34 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 35 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:46 and sunrise is at 7:17. The moon is waxing crescent. Illumination was 13% at midnight, will be 17% at noon and 21% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 9:06 and moonset is at 21:24. Moonlight time is 12 hours, 18 minutes which is 39 minutes longer than yesterday.

My brother will be celebrating a birthday in five days. National Freedom Day is in 13 days and Groundhog Day is in two weeks. -Bernie-