“Very, very cold”: Inauguration temperatures will be the lowest since 1985

It will be very cold Monday for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, as temperatures will drop well below average for this time of year in the Washington, DC area.

The weather forecast calls for a chance of snow on Sunday, followed by gusty winds and high temperatures of only around 20 degrees.

“We’re going to have dangerously cold temperatures with low wind chills,” said Brian LaSorsa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

By late morning, temperatures will likely drop from the teens to the mid-20s for actual air temperatures.

The hundreds of thousands of people in town for the inauguration will feel a strong wind blowing almost constantly throughout the day.

“We’re looking at winds of about 15 to 20 miles per hour with gusts of 25 to 30 miles per hour,” LaSorsa said. “When you combine that with very cold air temperatures, that’s what’s going to cause dangerously low wind chill values.”

Wind chills will be below 10% in the teens.

“It’s going to be very, very cold,” LaSorsa said. “Our high average for what it’s worth is in the upper 30s, so we’ll be well below average for this time of year.”

If forecasts hold, the inauguration would be by far the coldest since former President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, when the inauguration ceremony was moved indoors and the parade was canceled .

That day, the midday temperature was just 7 degrees, with a wind chill varying between -10 and -20.

In his inaugural speech, Reagan even mentioned the weather.

“We stand before this symbol of our democracy again – well, we would have stood at the steps if it hadn’t been so cold,” Reagan said. “Now we find ourselves inside this symbol of our democracy.”

Former President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 also took place in bitterly cold weather, with a temperature of 22 degrees and several inches of snow on the ground.

It was 42 degrees for President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. In 2017, during Trump’s first inauguration, it was 48 degrees.

At former President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2013, the temperature was 45 degrees, and it had dropped to 28 degrees by Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

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