November 9: ORD

Today is November 9th. It's the 313th day of the year. 52 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 50 and the normal low is 35. I've calculated the 32-year averages at 51 and 36.

On the warm side, in 1999 the high was the record high of 74 with the record warmest low of 59. Three years later, in 2002, the high was 63 with a low of 53. Four years later, in 2006, the high was 68 with a low of 47. Last year the high was 63 with a low of 50. In 1984 the high was 62 with a low of 49. A year earlier, in 1983, the high was 62 with a low of 46. In 2005 the high was 66 with a low of 41. Other warm highs were 63 in 1978 and 62 in 1980. 14 of the last 32 highs (44%) have been 40s. 14 highs (another 44%) were in the warmer: 50s (6), 60s (8) and 70s (1). Three 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 1977 the high was a warm 66 degrees. In 1975 the high was 68 with a low of 52, a warm day. In 1973 the high was 34 with a low of 20, a cold day. In 1972 the high was 45 with a low of 41, a four degree spread. Also in 1972, the temperatures from the 9th to the 11th were the same (a high of 45 and low of 41 each day). On the 12th, the high was 46 with a low of 41. In 1971 the high was 40 with a low of 34, a six degree spread. In 1970 the low was a warm 49 degrees. In 1969 the high was 48 with a low of 41, a seven degree spread. In 1966 the high was 63 with a low of 48, a warm day. In 1964 the high was a warm 71 with a low of 45, a warm day. In 1960 the low was a cold 23 degrees.

More recently, there was a large spreads of 31 degrees in 1995 (48/17). There were small spreads of four degrees in 1982 (46/42), five degrees in 1997 (45/40), six degrees in 1990 (40/34) and six degrees in 2000 (42/36).

On the cold side, in 1991 the high was 37 with the record low of 14. Five years earlier, in 1986, the high was 39 with a low of 21. In 2003 the high was 41 with a low of 20. Another cold lows was 17 in 1995. 27 of the last 32 lows (84%) were: 20s (8), 30s (8) and 40s (11). Two lows were in the cold 10s. Three lows were in the warmer 50s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:07 and sunrise is at 6:36. Sunset is at 16:37 and twilight ends at 17:07. There's a total of 10 hours, 1 minute of daylight today and 11 hours between twilights. We are losing two or three minutes of daylight a day. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:08 and sunrise is at 6:38. The moon is waxing crescent. Illumination was 11% at midnight, will be 15% at noon and 19% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 10:19 this morning. Moonset is at 19:33 tonight. Moonrise is at 11:03 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 14 minutes which is 8 minutes longer than yesterday.

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