Trump's inaugural ceremony moved indoors due to forecast of intense cold

It happened 40 years ago, and it's happening again Monday.

The inauguration ceremony of Donald J. Trump will be moved indoors Monday due to the extreme cold, the president-elect announced in a statement Friday.

"The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the country. I don't want to see people hurt, or injured in any way."

"It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!).

"Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather."

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies released a statement Friday, noting that the committee "will honor the request of the President-elect and his Presidential Inaugural Committee to move the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies inside the U.S. Capitol to the Rotunda.”

Reagan's was held indoors

The second inauguration of Ronald Reagan on Jan. 20, 1985, was forced indoors due to intense cold. As USA TODAY noted that day, "The USA's 50th inauguration today moves indoors – a victim of bone-chilling temperatures that threatened 350,000 invited guests and parade watchers."

How cold was it in January 1985 in Washington, D.C.? An overnight low of minus 3 degrees only climbed to a high of 17 degrees at 4:45 pm, USA TODAY reported.

This year, the threat is again bitter cold, with wind chill temperatures expected in the single digits.

What's the forecast?

This Monday, the high temperature will be around 20 degrees, with wind gusts up to 30 mph creating bitterly cold wind chills in the single digits all day and falling below zero at night, the National Weather Service said.

The current forecast high for Inauguration Day would break the record for the coldest Inauguration to take place on that date, according to Weather.com meteorologist Sara Tonks.

What is typical inaugural weather?

The average afternoon high temperature in Washington on Jan. 20 is 45 degrees, based on weather data from 1991 to 2020, the weather service said. The average low is 30 degrees, which is usually about dawn. On average, the temperature at noon, when the oath is given, is 37 degrees.

What happened in 1985?

As reported in the L.A. Times, President Reagan said that medical and military authorities had warned that “exposed flesh can freeze within five to 10 minutes” in the conditions expected, “triggering considerable danger to many of the parade and ceremony participants, spectators and the general public.”

“The health and safety of those attending and working at these outdoor events must come before any celebrations,” he said.

"It was wise of the president to cancel it," corps director Peter LaFlamme of the Spartan Drum and Bugle Corps from New Hampshire told USA TODAY in 1985, speaking of the parade.

"It wasn't human to have it."

A long and stormy relationship

Bad weather and Inauguration Day have had a long and stormy relationship: Miserably cold, wet conditions on Inauguration Day on March 4, 1841, even contributed to the death of one president (William Henry Harrison), who refused to wear a hat and coat while standing outside during his one-hour and 40-minute inaugural address. He caught pneumonia, possibly due to exposure that day, and died a month later.

"The worst weather on the face of the Earth," said one congressman about the heavy snow, frigid temperatures and howling winds that nearly buried the inauguration of William Howard Taft in March 1909. That ceremony was held in the U.S. Senate due to the raging blizzard outside, the Library of Congress reports.

More: A cold Monday in DC? Here's Donald Trump's Inauguration Day weather forecast

Inauguration Day was moved from March 4 to Jan. 20 in the 1930s, in part, to hope for less rainy, snowy weather. (It's colder in January, of course, but the chance for rain or snow in the Washington area is less.)

Here are the records for inaugural weather since 1937, the first January Inauguration Day, according to the National Weather Service:

? Warmest: 1981. Reagan's first inauguration. Noon temperature: 55 degrees.

? Coldest: 1985. Reagan's second inauguration. Noon temperature: 7 degrees. The inauguration was moved indoors.

? Rainiest: 1937. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inauguration, when 1.77 inches of rain fell.

? Snowiest: 1961. Eight inches of snow fell the night before John F. Kennedy was sworn in.

? Warmest nontraditional date: Aug. 9, 1974. Gerald Ford: 89 degrees, with partly cloudy skies and hazy conditions.

Contributing: Joseph Garrison, Zachary Anderson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's Inaugural ceremony moved indoors due to intense cold forecast