The Washington forecast, Wednesday, calls for a sunny sky with a noon temperature around 40 degrees. It is expected be a bit windy, with sustained northwest winds at 10 mph, with gusts of up to 20 mph.
The maximum temperature in the afternoon should warm up a few more degrees, reaching a maximum of about 45 degrees, but gusts of wind will maintain the “sensations” of temperatures in the mid-1930s for most of the ceremony.
Explosion of the past
By far, the worst weather belongs to the two inaugurations that caused the deaths of people living in the White House.
In 1841, President William Henry Harrison was sworn in on a miserable cloudy, cold, windy day. He remained outside for two hours without a hat or coat. He ended up catching a cold that turned into pneumonia and died only a month later.
Then, in 1853, the first lady to leave, Abigail Fillmore, who was attending the very cold, snowy inauguration of President Franklin Pierce, sat on a cold, damp, exposed platform during the ceremony. As a result, he ended up developing a cold that turned into pneumonia and died at the end of the month.
Don’t forget the date!
Still, it’s probably not fair to consider many of the pre-1937 opening days, as the seasons don’t match.
In 1937 the day of the inauguration was moved from March 4 to January 20 as a way to shorten the transition period of lame ducks.
For example, Woodrow Wilson in 1913 (first quarter) and Ronald Reagan in 1981 (first quarter) had an inauguration day climate that consisted of cloudy skies and 55-degree temperatures. But one of those 55-degree days was in March (when the normal high is 52 degrees) and the other in January (when the normal high is 43 degrees). So it’s a bigger deal for Reagan than for Wilson.
The snowiest month of the year in DC is actually February, right in the middle of the two opening dates.