November 19: ORD

Today is November 19th. It's the 323rd day of the year. 42 days remain. It's week 47 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 45 and the normal low is 30. I've calculated the 32-year averages at 50 and 33.

On the warm side, in 1983 the high was 63 with a low of 51. In 1991 the high was 70 (our only 70s high) with a low of 44. In 1979 the high was 65 with a low of 47. In 1982 the high was 60 with a low of 48. In 2004 the high was 55 with a low of 49, a six degree spread. Other warm highs were 63 in 1985 (our most recent 60s high), 59 in 1999 and 59 in 2007. The record high of 75 was set back in 1930. The record warmest low of 61 occurred back in 1934. Over the last 32 years, 23 highs (72%) have been: 40s (13) and 50s (10). Five highs were in the warmer: 60s (4) and 70s (1). Four highs were in the cold 30s.

In looking back through the years to the first November at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable: in 1975 the high was a warm 65 degrees with a low of 39, a warm day. In 1974 the low was a warm 44 degrees. In 1972 the high was 39 with a low of 33, a six degree spread. In 1971 the high was 43 with a low of 37, a six degree spread. In 1969 the high was a cold 32 with a low of 19, a cold day. In 1968 the high was 34 with a low of 27, a seven degree spread. In 1964 the high was a cold 32 with a low of 19, a cold day. In 1961 the high was a cold 33 with a low of 30, a mere three degree spread.

More recently, there was a large spread of 37 degrees in 1985 (63/26). There were small spreads of three degrees in 1992 (42/39), six degrees last year (47/41), seven degrees in 1986 (34/27) and seven degrees in 1988 (48/41).

On the cold side, in 1997 the high was 33 (our most recent 30s high) with a low of 22. In the previous year, 1996, the high was 32 with a low of 26. The record low of 10 and record coldest high of 22 were set on the same day way back in 1894. 25 of the last 32 lows (78%) were: 20s (14) and 30s (11). Seven lows were in the warmer: 40s (6) and 50s (1). In the past six years, two lows were in the 20s, two were in the 30s and two were in the 40s. There was a 13 year gap between lows in the 40s (49 in 2004 back to 44 in 1991).

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:18 and sunrise is at 6:49. Sunset is at 16:28 and twilight ends at 16:59. There's a total of 9 hours, 39 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 41 minutes between twilights. We are losing two minutes of daylight a day. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:19 and sunrise is at 6:50. The moon is waxing gibbous, heading towards the full Beaver (a.k.a. Frost) moon in two days at 11:27. Illumination was 94% at midnight, will be 96% at noon and 98% at midnight tonight. Moonset is at 4:45 this morning. Moonrise is at 15:00 this afternoon. Moonset is at 5:50 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 13 hours, 45 minutes which is 32 minutes longer than yesterday.

Thanksgiving is in six days. Pearl Harbor Day is in 18 days. -Bernie-