{"id":3444,"date":"2011-02-18T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T23:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2011-02-18T16:32:50","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T23:32:50","slug":"why-our-forecasts-say-washingtons-birthday-instead-of-presidents-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/national-weather\/why-our-forecasts-say-washingtons-birthday-instead-of-presidents-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Why our forecasts say “Washington’s Birthday” instead of “Presidents Day”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"George
Did you know there is no such holiday as "Presidents Day?" The holiday is technically titled "Washington's Birthday" per Section 6103 (a) of Title 5 of the United States Code.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You may have noticed that our forecasts leading up to Monday’s holiday say “Washington’s Birthday”<\/a> instead of “Presidents Day.”\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because, believe it or not, there is no Federal holiday called Presidents Day.<\/p>\n

You read that right.\u00a0 If you don’t believe us, check out official calendar from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0As it turns out the third Monday of every February, while we commonly refer to it as Presidents Day, is by U.S. Code officially titled Washington’s Birthday.<\/p>\n

The holiday began with an Act of Congress in 1880 and was for government offices in Washington DC.\u00a0 It was expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices and was celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday of February 22.<\/p>\n

Then, in 1971 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act shifted the celebration to the third Monday of each February so now the date can range anywhere from the 15th to the 21st.\u00a0 An early draft of that act would have renamed the holiday to Presidents Day but it failed in a Congressional committee in 1968.<\/p>\n

So there you have it.\u00a0 When someone says something about Monday’s holiday being Presidents Day, you can correct them and tell them there is no such holiday.<\/p>\n

From the National Weather Service<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Q. Why did the National Weather Service (NWS) change its weather forecast references from Presidents Day to Washington\u2019s Birthday in 2011?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0 Weather forecast references were changed because the holiday is officially designated as \u201cWashington\u2019s Birthday\u201d in Section 6103 (a) of Title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. \u00a0Although other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is NWS policy to refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.<\/p>\n

Q. Wasn\u2019t the holiday changed to Presidents Day when it was established by Congress to be observed on the third Monday in February?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. No. \u00a0The effort to rename the holiday Presidents Day, intended to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln, failed in Congressional committee.\u00a0 The bill, which was then signed into law on June 28, 1968, specified that the Federal holiday would retain the name Washington\u2019s Birthday. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of January 1, 1971, established its observance on the third Monday in February.<\/p>\n

Q. What changes did the NWS implement to make this change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. The NWS changed the software on all its Internet web pages and at all local Weather Forecast Offices so that forecasts which include Washington\u2019s Birthday will show the officially designated name for the holiday this year and into the future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have noticed that our forecasts leading up to Monday’s holiday say “Washington’s Birthday” instead of “Presidents Day.”\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because, believe it or not, there is no Federal holiday called Presidents Day. You read that right.\u00a0 If you don’t believe us, check out official calendar from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.\u00a0 … Continue reading Why our forecasts say “Washington’s Birthday” instead of “Presidents Day”<\/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":[134,489,490],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444"}],"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=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3445,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions\/3445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}