July 7: ORD

Today is July 7th. It's the 188th day of the year. 177 days remain. It's week 27 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 83 and the normal low is 62. I've calculated the 31-year averages at 84 and 62.

On the hot side, there were no days of a mean of 11.5 degrees or more above normal. In 1980 the high was the record high of 102. The 90s highs of note were 97 in 1988, 94 in 1991 and 93 in 1981. The warm low of note was 73 in 1994. The record warmest low of 78 occurred way back in 1876. 15 of the last 31 highs were 80s. Seven highs were in the warmer: 90s (6) and 100s (1). Nine highs were in the cooler: 60s (1) and 70s (8).

In looking back through the years to the first July at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1969 the high was a cool 65 with a low of 60, a five degree spread. In 1961 the high was a cool 70 with a low of 53, a cool day. In 1959 the high was 87 with a low of 56, a 31 degree spread.

More recently, there were large spreads of: 43 degrees in 1980 (102/59), 36 degrees in 1981 (93/57), 34 degrees in 1983 (79/45), 30 degrees in 1979 (85/55) and 30 degrees in 1985 (88/58).

On the cool side, in 1984 the high was 74 with a low of 47. The other low of note was the record low of 45, set in 1983. Another cool high was 69 in 2004. The record coolest high of 62 occurred back in 1904. 25 of the last 31 lows were: 50s (10) and 60s (15). Two lows were in the cooler 40s. Four lows were in the warmer 70s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight began at 4:50 and sunrise was at 5:24. Sunset is at 20:32 and twilight ends at 21:06. There's a total of 15 hours, 8 minutes of daylight today and 16 hours, 16 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 4:51 and sunrise is at 5:25. The moon is waning crescent. Illumination was 25% at midnight, will be 20% at noon and 16% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 1:21 this morning. Moonset is at 16:42 and moonrise is at 2:03 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 15 hours, 21 minutes which is 34 minutes longer than yesterday.

NASCAR races in my area in two days and Parent's Day is in 18 days. - Bernie -