Trump’s Second Inauguration to Be One of the Coldest Ever
(Bloomberg) -- A blast of extreme cold is forecast to sweep the central US this weekend before spreading to the East Coast. Monday’s presidential inauguration promises to be one of the coldest on record, with temperatures in Washington forecast to be 22F (-6C), according to the National Weather Service. This prompted US officials to move the ceremony indoors to the Capitol Rotunda.
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On Jan. 21, 1985, Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural ceremony was moved indoors, with the thermometer hitting 7F at noon that day. The next coldest January swearing-in was John F. Kennedy’s at 22F in 1961.
Prior to 1937, the oath was administered as spring approached in early March. Nevertheless, the mercury was at 16F for Ulysses S. Grant’s second inaugural, in 1873. The year 1841 featured the “most dramatic and tragic” inauguration weather, when William Henry Harrison was sworn on a cloudy and blustery day, with the noon temperature estimated at 48F. “His speech lasted one hour and 40 minutes and he rode a horse to and from the Capitol without a hat or overcoat,” note on the National Weather Service’s website reads. “Pneumonia developed from a lingering cold he caught on that day and he died just one month later.”
(Updates to include CNN reporting on ceremony moving indoors.)
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