October 16: ORD

Today is October 16th. It's the 289th day of the year. 76 days remain. It's week 42 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 62 and the normal low is 42. I've calculated the 31-year averages at 62 and 43.

On the warm side, in 1998 the high was 80 (our only 80s high) with a low of 55. Four years earlier, in 1994, the high was 76 with a low of 57. Other warm highs were 75 in 1988 and 74 in 1980. Other warm lows were 57 in 1996 and 54 in 1979. The record high of 87 was set in 1963 and the record warmest low of 68 occurred way back in 1897. Over the last 31 years, 28 highs (90%) have been: 50s (11), 60s (10) and 70s (7). One high was in the warmer 80s and two highs were in the cooler 40s (both occurred recently: 45 last year and 47 in 2004). Our last high in the 70s occurred 16 years ago in 1994 (76). There were two streaks of 70s highs. The first was in 1983 & 1984 when it hit 72 each year. Then from 1987 to 1989 it hit 73, 75 and 73. The other post-1978 occurrence was 1980's high of 74. Today's predictions are 70 by The Weather Channel and 72 by the National Weather Service.

In looking back through the years to the first October at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: in 1970 the low was a cold 30 degrees. In 1968 the high was 82 with a low of 65, a hot day. In 1965 the high was 80 with a low of 56, a warm day. In 1964 the high was a warm 76 with a low of 37, a 39 degree spread. In 1963 the high was 85 with a low of 56, a hot day and year of the record high. In 1962 the high was 73 with a low of 42, a 31 degree spread. In 1961 the high was 70 with a low of 40, a 30 degree spread.

More recently, there were large spreads of 34 degrees in 1991 (62/28) and 31 degrees in 1983 (72/41). The lone small spread was six degrees last year (45/39).

On the cool side, in 1992 the high was 50 with a low of 29. The record low of 28 was set in 1991. Other cool highs were 45 last year, 47 in 2004 and 50 in 2002. The record coolest high of 44 occurred back in 1943. 29 of the last 31 lows (94%) were: 30s (11), 40s (10) and 50s (8). Two lows were in the cooler 20s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:39 and sunrise is at 7:07. Sunset is at 18:10 and twilight ends at 18:38. There's a total of 11 hours, 3 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 59 minutes between twilights. We are losing two or three minutes of daylight a day. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:40 and sunrise is at 7:08. The moon reached first quarter two days ago at 16:27 and is waxing gibbous. Illumination was 63% at midnight, will be 68% at noon and 72% at midnight tonight. Moonset was at 0:53 this morning. Moonrise is at 15:08 this afternoon. Moonset is at 1:53 tomorrow morning. Moonrise is at 15:32 tomorrow afternoon. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 45 minutes which is 25 minutes longer than yesterday.

United Nation's Day is in eight days. Halloween is in 15 days. Election Day is in 17 days. -Bernie-