{"id":17215,"date":"2017-01-20T08:01:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T15:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=17215"},"modified":"2025-01-16T14:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:25:23","slug":"mother-nature-inauguration-day-president-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/national-weather\/mother-nature-inauguration-day-president-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Nature can be a factor in Inauguration Day events and the swearing in of a new president"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"By<\/a>
By far the most tragic inaugural weather was in 1841 when William Henry Harrison contracted pneumonia and died a month later. Image courtesy the Library of Congress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a cold, wet and blustery day, the new President of the United States prepared to take office.\u00a0 He rode a horse to and from the Capitol that day and spoke on the steps of the building for nearly two hours \u2013 all without an overcoat or so much as a hat.<\/p>\n

William Henry Harrison\u2019s<\/a> refusal to acknowledge the realities of the harsh weather on March 4, 1841 would be his demise.\u00a0 Our nation\u2019s newest president would also have the shortest presidency, a mere 30 days, as he caught a chill that day which then turned to pneumonia and would claim his life.<\/p>\n

Weather in the winter can be a wildcard to say the least and it has been a point of consternation for inauguration festivities.\u00a0 In President Harrison\u2019s day, we inaugurated our new leader in March but since 1937 Inauguration Day<\/a> has been held on January 20th, a day which puts it right in the potentially coldest part of winter.<\/p>\n

‘Normal\u2019 weather for January 20th in Washington D.C. actually isn\u2019t all that bad.\u00a0 The city usually reaches a high temperature in the low 40\u2019s.\u00a0 At noon, the appointed time for the inaugural address, the normal temperature is 37 degrees with partly cloudy skies and a 10 mph wind.\u00a0 According to the National Weather Service<\/a> there is historically a 1 in 20 chance of snowfall on the date itself.\u00a0 Not too bad at all.<\/p>\n

Like President Harrison, some other presidents weren\u2019t very lucky when it came to the weather on inauguration day.<\/p>\n

100 years ago President William Howard Taft<\/a> famously said, \u201cI knew it would be a cold day when I made president,\u201d and he was absolutely right.\u00a0 On that March day ten inches of snow fell and wind downed trees and power poles as streets became clogged and trains stalled.\u00a0 President Taft\u2019s ceremony was moved indoors due to poor weather and historians consider the day the worst inaugural weather ever.<\/p>\n

\""President<\/a>
“President Ronald Reagan’s swearing in was the coldest in history but there has been other notable weather on Inauguration Day. (White House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Taft had it rough but his inauguration wasn\u2019t the coldest.\u00a0 For his second inauguration President Ronald Reagan<\/a> saw truly Arctic cold temperatures impact his ceremony.\u00a0 At noon in 1985 it was a mere 7 degrees and the wind chill dropped that to between -10 and -20 degrees.\u00a0 Like Taft, President Reagan\u2019s inauguration was moved indoors.<\/p>\n

In 1873 when Ulysses S. Grant<\/a> prepared to take office for his second term, the temperature was a mere 16 degrees at noon.\u00a0 The wind was so bad it made his inaugural address inaudible to everyone including those on the platform with him.<\/p>\n

In 1961 on the eve of John F. Kennedy’s<\/a> inauguration, eight inches of snow fell causing the worst inaugural traffic jam as hundred of cars were stuck and thousands abandoned.\u00a0 The temperature only reached 22 degrees that day and the new president was forced to cancel dinner plans as travel was so difficult.<\/p>\n

As for rain, that too can intrude on one of our nation’s most revered occasions.\u00a0 1.77 inches of rain fell on January 20, 1937 \u2013 a record for the date that still stands today.\u00a0 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt<\/a> rode in a convertible back to the White House<\/a> after the inauguration which had a half-inch of water on the floor by the time he arrived.<\/p>\n

How are things looking for Inauguration Day 2017 and President-elect\u00a0Donald Trump’s swearing in? \u00a0Rain looks to be a virtual certainty for much of the morning right through the swearing in at 12:00 noon EST \/ 10:00am MST. \u00a0The actual volume of precipitation though does not look like it will be all that great. \u00a0Temperatures will be topping out a bit warmer than normal for the date with an expected high of 48 degrees. \u00a0Click here for the latest forecast for Washington DC from the National Weather Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a cold, wet and blustery day, the new President of the United States prepared to take office.\u00a0 He rode a horse to and from the Capitol that day and spoke on the steps of the building for nearly two hours \u2013 all without an overcoat or so much as a hat. William Henry Harrison\u2019s … Continue reading Mother Nature can be a factor in Inauguration Day events and the swearing in of a new president<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[773,218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17215"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24775,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17215\/revisions\/24775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}