February 16: ORD

Today is February 16th. It's the 47th day of the year. 318 days remain. It's week 7 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 35 and the normal low is 19. I've calculated the 31-year averages at 33 and 19.

On the warm side, in 1981 the high was 52 with a low of 38. In 1998 the high was 44 with the record-tying warmest low of 39. The low was also 39 in 1927. In 1984 the high was 46 with a low of 36. Fifteen years later, in 1999, high was 46 with a low of 31. There were four other warm lows: two were 33 degrees (1982, 1983) and two were 32 degrees (1992, 2002). The record high of 58 was set in 1921. 14 of the last 31 highs were 30s. On the warmer side, six highs were 40s and one was a 50. On the colder side, eight highs were 20s and two were 10s (a.k.a. teens).

In looking back through the years to the first February at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1978 the high was 15 with a low of 2, a cold day. In 1977 the low was a cold 7 degrees. In 1976 the high was 44 with a warm low of 34, a warm day. In 1975 the high was 35 with a warm low of 32, a three degree spread. In 1973 the high was 18 with a low of 4, yet another cold one. In 1968 the high was a warm 47 degrees. In 1967 the high was 15 with a low of 5, a cold day. In 1963 the high was 29 with a cold low of -5, a 34 degree spread and cold day. In 1962 the high was 34 with a low of 30, a four degree spread. In 1960 the high was 36 with a low of 29, a seven degree spread.

More recently, there were small spreads of four degrees on three occasions: 1982 (37/33), 1983 (37/33) and 1992 (36/32). There was one spread of seven degrees in 2005 (33/26) and one large spread of 30 degrees in 1991 (31/1).

On the cold side, three years ago the high was 19 with a low of -4. In 1980 the high was 17 with a low of 2. The year prior, in 1979, the high was 20 with a low of 9. Other cold lows were 5 (2004, 2008) and 1 in 1991. The record low of -10 was set way back in 1885 and the record coldest high of 2 was set back in 1900. 18 of the last 31 lows have been: single digits (7) and 10s (a.k.a. teens) (11). Even colder, one low was in the negative single digits (-4 in 2007). On the warmer side, four lows were 20s and eight lows were 30s.

Today is not 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 6:20 and sunrise is at 6:48. Sunset is at 17:27 and twilight ends at 17:56. Chicago's sunset/end of twilight times are each two minutes earlier. There's a total of 10 hours, 39 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 36 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:18 and sunrise is at 6:47. The moon is waxing crescent. Illumination was 4% at midnight, will be 6% at noon and 9% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 7:33. Moonset is at 20:18. Moonrise is at 7:54 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 12 hours, 45 minutes which is 40 minutes longer than yesterday.

Washington's birthday is in six days. Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. -Bernie-