An Arctic blast will give Trump the coldest inauguration in 40 years
By Mary Gilbert and Taylor Ward, CNN meteorologists
(CNN) — The coldest air of winter so far will blast into Washington, DC, on Monday as President-elect Donald Trump stands up in front of the capitol to take his oath of office.
The temperature on Inauguration Day at noon — when the president-elect swears in — is expected to be in the low-20s, which is around 20 degrees below normal.
It will likely be the coldest Inauguration Day since President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 when the noon temperature was 7 degrees. The noon temperature was 28 degrees for President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.
Winds of 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph are likely Monday. These winds will make conditions feel downright frigid. Wind chills are likely to hover around 10 degrees during the daylight hours Monday and could drop into the single digits after sundown.
A mix of rain and snow is possible Sunday ahead of the main event, but Monday so far looks to be cold and windy, but dry.
Brutally cold Arctic air will spill south through Canada late this week and rush into the northern US by Saturday morning. It will then expand over much of the West and Central US Saturday and reach parts of the South and East Sunday.
Temperatures could be almost 30 degrees below normal by Monday for millions across the Lower 48 in what’s already the coldest part of the year.
The inauguration is not the only event this cold blast will affect. The temperature will be in the 20s for the Saturday mid-afternoon kickoff between the Texans and the Chiefs in Kansas City, but the wind chill will hover in the low teens for kickoff and throughout the game.
Brutal cold is also in the forecast for Sunday’s Ravens and Bills matchup in Orchard Park, New York. Temperatures will be in the upper teens for the early evening kickoff and fall several degrees from there. Wind chills will be in the single digits for the entire game.
There have been 22 inaugurations since the event was moved to January 20 in 1937. Among those, a noon temperature of 24 degrees would be the third-coldest — it was 22 degrees for John F. Kennedy’s swearing-in in 1961. Eight inches of fresh snow fell the night before.
President Reagan holds the record for warmest and coldest January Inauguration. While his second Inauguration Day in 1985 was just 7 degrees, his first in 1981 was 55 degrees.
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