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Trump's inauguration will be coldest in decades

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Trump inauguration preparations underway
Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
ByMax Golembo, Emily Shapiro, and Alexandra Svokos
January 16, 2025, 3:40 PM

President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years.

An arctic front will pass by Washington, D.C., on Sunday night and winds will pick up out of the northwest, ushering in arctic air.

Seating on the dais is pictured at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building as preparations are underway for the upcoming presidential inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in Washington, Jan. 15, 2025.
Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

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Monday's temperature will be at its highest -- about 25 degrees -- when the clock strikes Inauguration Day at midnight. Throughout the course of the day, the temperature will slowly fall.

When Trump is sworn in at noon, the temperature will be about 18 or 19 degrees. Due to the wind, the wind chill -- what temperature it feels like -- will be between 5 and 10 degrees.

A general view shows the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building as preparations are underway for the upcoming presidential inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in Washington, Jan. 15, 2025.
Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

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By 7 p.m., when the inauguration balls begin, the temperature will be near 13 degrees with a wind chill of minus 1.

The coldest January Inauguration Day on record was 1985 for President Ronald Reagan's second inauguration.

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The temperature that morning fell to a low of 4 degrees below zero. The temperature was just 7 degrees at noon, moving Reagan's swearing-in ceremony inside and canceling the parade.

The daytime high was only 17 degrees.

President Reagan is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger in the Capitol Rotunda in a public inauguration ceremony, Jan. 21, 1985, in Washington, DC.
Bill Creighton/Getty Images

The warmest January inauguration was also for Reagan, in 1981, at a balmy 55 degrees.

The warmest inauguration ever was 89 degrees on Aug. 9, 1974, when President Gerald Ford was sworn in following President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Inaugurations used to be held in March until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, stating that the president's term began at noon on Jan. 20.

One of the most memorable January inaugurations was President John F. Kennedy's in 1961. A snowstorm struck D.C. the night before, and the 8 inches of snow forced people to ditch their cars and created a massive traffic jam.

President Kennedy and wife Jackie walk before the White House in order to see a parade in honor of the inauguration, on January 20, 1961.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

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