February 27: ORD

Today is February 27th. It's the 58th day of the year. 307 days remain. It's week 9 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 39 and the normal low is 23. I've calculated the 32-year averages at 38 and 23.

On the warm side, in 1981 the high was 60 with a low of 35. Nearly two decades later, in 2000, the high was 52 with a low of 38. The year prior, 1999, the high was 48 with a low of 38. Another warm high was 52 in 1998 and another warm low was 35 in 1987. The record high of 75 was set in 1976. This was at Midway. For O'Hare, see the next paragraph. The record warmest low of 42 occurred way back in 1896. 28 of the last 32 highs (88%) were in the: 20s (7), 30s (12) and 40s (9). On the warmer side, three highs were in the 50s and one was in the 60s.

In looking back through the years to the first February at O'Hare in 1959, the following instances were notable: In 1978 the high was 29 with a cold low of 8, a cold day. In 1977 the high was 32 with a low of 26, a six degree spread. In 1976 the high was 71 with a low of 38, a warm day and year of the record high. In 1974 the low was a warm 36 degrees. In 1971 the high was 40 with a low of 34, a six degree spread. In 1970 the high was 33 with a low of 27, a six degree spread. In 1967 the high was 34 with a low of 27, a seven degree spread. In 1964 the high was 31 with a cold low of 3, a cold day. In 1963 the high was 23 with a low of 2, another cold day. In 1960 the high was 27 with a low of 8, yet another cold day.

More recently, we had small spreads of two degrees in 1995 (33/31), three degrees in 1997 (36/33), four degrees in 1984 (29/25), four degrees in 2007 (33/29), six degrees last year (34/28) and seven degrees in 1980 (30/23).

On the cold side, in 1994 the high was 27 with a low of -5, a 32 degree spread. A year earlier, in 1993, the high was 29 with a low of 6. Three years ago, in 2008, the high was 23 with a low of 15. Nearly two decades earlier, in 1989, the high was 27 with a low of 11. Other cold lows were 9 in 1986 and 10 in 2003. Another cold high was 25 in 2002. The record low of -6 was set way back in 1897. That record of -6 was originally set way back in 1879. The record coldest high of 10 occurred way back in 1888. 29 of the last 32 lows (91%) were in the: 10s (a.k.a. teens) (8), 20s (13) and 30s (8). Our most recent 30s low was 38 in 2000. Two lows were in the cold single digits and one low was in the very cold negative single digits.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:04 and sunrise is at 6:32. Sunset is at 17:41 and twilight ends at 18:09. There's a total of 11 hours, 9 minutes of daylight today and 12 hours, 5 minutes between twilights. We gained four minutes of daylight from yesterday. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:02 and sunrise is at 6:31. The moon is waning crescent. Illumination was 27% at midnight, will be 23% at noon and 19% at midnight tonight. Moonrise is at 3:27 this morning. Moonset is at 12:51 this afternoon. Moonrise is at 4:07 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 24 minutes which is 14 minutes longer than yesterday.

Mardi Gras is in nine days. Ash Wednesday is in ten days. The cool part of Spring (Cool Spring) begins in 13 days on March 12. Cool Spring runs for 32 days, through April 12. High temperatures in this period are usually in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Warmer 60s and 70s occur infrequently. -Bernie-