October 28: ORD

Today is October 28th. It's the 301st day of the year. 64 days remain. It's week 43 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 56 and the normal low is 38. I've calculated the 31-year averages at 58 and 39.

On the warm side, in 1999 the high was the record high of 80 with a low of 48, a 32 degree spread. A decade earlier, in 1989, the high was 74 with a low of 53. In 1982 the high was 70 with a low of 54. Other warm highs were 73 in 1983 and 71 in 1986. As you can see, all of the 70s highs occurred between 1982 and 1989, at least 21 years ago. Other warm lows were 52 in 1991 and 50 last year. The record warmest low of 58 was set way back in 1896. Over the last 31 years, 14 highs have been 50s. 12 highs were in the warmer: 60s (7), 70s (4) and 80s (1). Five highs were in the cooler 40s. The last 60s high was 61 in 2004.

In looking back through the years to the first October at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: in 1976 the high was 49 with a cold low of 22, a cool day. In 1974 the high was 73 with a low of 50, a warm day. In 1969 the high was 45 with a cold low of 25, a cool day. In 1968 the high was a cool 44 with a low of 39, a five degree spread. In 1966 the high was a warm 73 with a low of 37, a 36 degree spread. In 1965 the low was a cold 24 degrees. In 1964 the high was a warm 68 degrees. In 1960 the high was 56 with a low of 49, a seven degree spread. In 1959 the high was 43 with a low of 25, a cold day.

More recently, there were large spreads of 34 degrees in 1981 (65/31) and 30 degrees in 1983 (73/43). There were small spreads of six degrees in 1991 (58/52), seven degrees in 2000 (53/46) and seven degrees last year (57/50).

On the cool side, in 1980 the high was 44 with a low of 26. Another cool low was 25 in 1997. Another cool high was 44 in 1988. The record low of 19 and record coolest high of 31 were set on the same day back in 1925. 25 of the last 31 lows (81%) were: 30s (15) and 40s (10). Two lows were in the cooler 20s. Four lows were in the warmer 50s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:53 and sunrise is at 7:21. Sunset is at 17:52 and twilight ends at 18:21. There's a total of 10 hours, 31 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 28 minutes between twilights. We are losing two or three minutes of daylight a day. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:54 and sunrise is at 7:23. The moon is waning gibbous. Illumination was 74% at midnight, will be 69% at noon and 64% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 12:45 this afternoon. Moonrise is at 22:20 tonight. Moonset is at 13:26 tomorrow afternoon. Moonlight time is 14 hours, 25 minutes which is 20 minutes shorter than yesterday.

Halloween is in three days. Election Day is in five days. Veteran's Day is in 14 days. -Bernie-