February 28: ORD

Today is February 28th. It's the 59th day of the year. 306 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 30-year averages at 38 and 22.

On the warm side, in 2000 the high was 55 with a low of 30. Other warm highs were 56 in 1983 and 55 in 2004. Another warm low was 37 in 1987. The record high of 61 and record warmest low of 46 were both set on the same day way back in 1895. 20 of the last 31 highs were 30s (9) and 40s (11). On the warmer side, four highs were 50s. 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 1976 the high was a warm 55 with a low of 34, a warm day. In 1974 the high was a warm 54. In 1967 the high was 28 with a cold low of 11, a cold day. In 1966 the high was 38 with a low of 34, a four degree spread. In 1965 the high was a warm 57 with a low of 21, a 36 degree spread. In 1963 the low was a cold 4 degrees. In 1962 the high was 23 with a low of 0, a cold day. In 1960 the high was a cold 26 degrees.

More recently, we had small spreads of five degrees in 1984 (28/23), six degrees in 1987 (43/37), six degrees in 1999 (40/34), seven degrees three years ago (35/28) and seven degrees last year (27/20). The lone large spread was 30 degrees five years ago (55/25).

On the cold side, in 1986 the high was 25 with a low of 8. Two years ago the high was 29 with a low of 8. In 2001 the high was 28 with a low of 11. Another cold low was 9 in 1993. Other cold highs were 26 in 1996 and 27 last year. The record low of 0 was set way back in 1884 and the record coldest high of 14 was set way back in 1891. 21 of the last 31 lows have been: 10s (a.k.a. teens) (10) and 20s (11). Three lows were in the colder single digits and seven lows were in the warmer 30s.

Today is a major day in Chicago's snow history. At the Auditorium Tower back in 1900, 11.3 inches fell.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight began at 6:02 and sunrise was at 6:30. Sunset is at 17:42 and twilight ends at 18:10. There's a total of 11 hours, 12 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 8 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:00 and sunrise is at 6:29. The moon reaches the full Snow moon today at 10:38. Illumination was 100% at midnight, will be 100% at noon and 99% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 6:09. Moonrise is at 18:09. Moonset is at 6:37 tomorrow. Moonlight time is 12 hours which is 49 minutes shorter than yesterday.

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