Events

Every six months or so, I update the sunrise chart for Chicago. Because of a bug in the tool I wrote to generate the raw data I use, and because fixing that bug fell nearly to the bottom of my priority list, I didn't fix it until Monday. So, finally, I've updated the chart. Enjoy. The next one should be on time at the end of the year.

Here's the semi-annual Chicago sunrise chart (a bit later than expected, but hey). (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.) Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 3 Jul 8:30pm sunset 05:21 20:30 15:08 16 Jul 5:30am sunrise 05:30 20:24 14:53 8 Aug 8pm sunset 05:52 20:00 14:08 15 Aug 6am sunrise 06:00 19:51 13:51 28 Aug 7:30pm sunset 06:13 19:30 13:17 13 Sep 6:30am sunrise 06:30 19:03 12:33 15 Sep 7pm sunset 06:32 19:00 12:28 22 Sep Equinox, 08:31 CDT...

Welcome to stop #33 on the Brews and Choos project. Note: closed permanently, 10 September 2022. Brewery: Urban Brew Labs, 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave., ChicagoTrain line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood (Also CTA Brown Line, Damen) Time from Chicago: 16 minutes (Zone B)Distance from station: 600 m (1.6 km from CTA) Update: The taproom opened on 1 August 2021. This relatively new (2018) brewery just across the tracks from Empirical has a tiny patio and large ambitions. James, the owner, plans to open a...

Fourteen years ago today, Parker came home with me: Here's the old guy waiting to get jabbed at today's vet visit: Of course, if he keeps pooping in the house—ten minutes after our morning walk he got the bathroom, bedroom, and hallway in three separate deposits—I might kick him out.

The Chicago Tribune's Frank Wachowski concurs with the Daily Parker: 2020 was the warmest summer in Chicago history: To be sure, there have been many summers with hotter individual temperatures (2012, 1995, 1988 come to mind) but the warmth this summer has been persistent, especially at night where many warm overnight low temperatures have been observed.  But when you average out all the high and low temperatures this summer since June 1, the 24.8°C degree average temperature for 2020 just edges out...

With today's high temperature at O'Hare (29°C) coming in slightly above forecast—as it has almost every day this week—I can now state with confidence that 2020's was the hottest summer ever in Chicago. By my figures, we hit an average daily temperature of 24.8°C, 0.2°C above the record set in 1955. The string of 6 days above 32°C from the 23rd to the 28th put us over the top, so that even the weekend's milder temperatures couldn't bring us back under the line. Congratulations? Oh, and this is the blog's...

Today is the last day of meteorological summer, and by my math we really have had the warmest summer ever in Chicago. (More on that tomorrow, when it's official.) So I, for one, am happy to see it go. And yet, so many things of note happened just in the last 24 hours: Greg Sargent says the president's "vile tweetstorm" yesterday "reveals the ugly core of his 'law and order' campaign." On that point, lawyer Nick Carmody suggests that the civil unrest the president has fomented "is one of the greatest...

I'm glad I took a long walk yesterday and not today, because of this: In other news: State health officials warn that suburban Cook County (the immediate suburbs surrounding Chicago) has experienced a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, and placed it and 29 other counties on warning that social restrictions could resume next week. Moreover, Covid-19 leads in a massive wave of excess deaths reported by the Cook County Medical Examiner this week. Suicides, homicides, and overdoses are also at near-record...

All autocratic regimes suffer from endemic incompetence. It's easy to see why: if you can't contradict the autocrat, the government is only as competent as he is. When the autocrat is a pathological narcissist, you get another level of stupid on top. People work in governments like this for one reason only: to get rich. And they get rich by stealing from the public. Competence only gets in the way of the grift. So here we find ourselves 65 days from an election in which the incumbent claims to have the...

Today is not only a Saturday, it's also the first day all week under 32°C. So I took a little 26 km walk around the neighborhood. It felt good, and I maintained a Chicago Marathon-qualifying pace throughout. I also underestimated my water needs by half, so I've drunk about two liters since I got home. And now, I must go to the store. Yay.