November 7: ORD

Today is November 7th. It's the 311th day of the year. 54 days remain. It's week 45 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 51 and the normal low is 35. I've calculated the 32-year averages at 52 and 34.

On the warm side, last year the high was 71 (our only 70s high) with a low of 46. In 2001 the high was 68 with a low of 44. Another warm high was 67 in 1982. The record high of 75 was set in 1915. The record warmest low of 63 occurred in 1975. 23 of the last 32 highs (72%) have been: 40s (11) and 50s (12). Seven highs were in the warmer: 60s (6) and 70s (1). Two highs were in the cooler: 20s (1) and 30s (1).

In looking back through the years to the first November at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable: in 1977 the high was 58 with a warm low of 54, a spread of four degrees and a warm day. In 1976 the high was 38 with a low of 22, a cold day. In 1975 the high was 67 with a low of 62, a spread of just five degrees, a warm day and year of the record warmest low. In 1971 the high was 35 with a low of 19, a cold day. In 1967 the low was a cold 22 degrees. In 1966 the high was 71 with a low of 50, a warm day. In 1965 the low was a warm 49 degrees. In 1959 the high was 35 with a low of 20, a cold day.

More recently, there were large spreads of 31 degrees in 1982 (67/36) and 30 degrees in 1981 (60/30). There was a small spread of four degrees in 1998 (42/38).

On the cool side, in 1991 the high was the record coolest high of 27 with the record low of 13. A couple of years later, in 1993, the high was 41 with a low of 16. Another cool high was 38 in 1992. 18 of the last 32 lows (56%) were 30s. Six lows were in the cooler: 10s (2) and 20s (4). Eight lows were in the warmer 40s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:04 and sunrise is at 6:34. Sunset is at 16:40 and twilight ends at 17:09. There's a total of 10 hours, 6 minutes of daylight today and 11 hours, 5 minutes between twilights. We are losing two or three minutes of daylight a day. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:05 and sunrise is at 6:35. The moon reached new two nights ago at 23:52 and is waxing crescent. Illumination was 2% at midnight, will be 3% at noon and 5% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 8:23 this morning. Moonset is at 17:36 this afternoon. Moonrise is at 9:26 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 13 minutes which is 21 minutes shorter than yesterday.

Veteran's Day is in four days. -Bernie-