February 27: ORD

Today is February 27th. It's the 58th day of the year. 307 days remain. It's week 9 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 39 and the normal low is 23. I've calculated the 31-year averages at 38 and 22.

On the warm side, in 1981 the high was 60 with a low of 35. Nearly two decades later, in 2000, the high was 52 with a low of 38. The year prior, 1999, the high was 48 with a low of 38. Another warm high was 52 in 1998 and another warm low was 35 in 1987. The record high of 75 was set in 1976. This was at Midway. For O'Hare, see the next paragraph. The record warmest low of 42 was set way back in 1896. 20 of the last 31 highs were: 30s (11) and 40s (9). On the warmer side, three highs were 50s and one was in the 60s. On the colder side, seven highs were 20s.

In looking back through the years to the first February at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1977 the high was 32 with a low of 26, a six degree spread. In 1976 the high was 71 with a low of 38, a warm day. In 1971 the high was 40 with a low of 34, a six degree spread. In 1970 the high was 33 with a low of 27, a six degree spread. In 1967 the high was 34 with a low of 27, a seven degree spread.

More recently, we had small spreads of two degrees in 1995 (33/31), three degrees in 1997 (36/33), four degrees in 1984 (29/25), four degrees three years ago (33/29) and seven degrees in 1980 (30/23).

On the cold side, in 1994 the high was 27 with a low of -5, a 32 degree spread. A year earlier, in 1993, the high was 29 with a low of 6. Two years ago the high was 23 with a low of 15. Nearly two decades earlier, in 1989, the high was 27 with a low of 11. Other cold lows were 9 in 1986 and 10 in 2003. Another cold high was 25 in 2002. The record low of -6 was set way back in 1897. It was also -6 way back in 1879. The record coldest high of 10 was set way back in 1888. 28 of the last 31 lows have been: 10s (a.k.a. teens) (8), 20s (12) and 30s (8). Two lows were in the colder single digits and one low was in the negative single digits.

Today is 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 began at 6:04 and sunrise was at 6:32. Sunset is at 17:41 and twilight ends at 18:09. There's a total of 11 hours, 9 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 5 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:02 and sunrise is at 6:30. The moon is waxing gibbous, heading towards the full Snow moon tomorrow. Illumination was 97% at midnight, will be 99% at noon and 100% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 5:39. Moonrise is at 16:50. Moonset is at 6:09 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 12 hours, 49 minutes which is 48 minutes shorter than yesterday.

My birthday is in eight days and a sister of mine, Christina, celebrates a birthday in 11 days. -Bernie-