ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As you probably know, the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States will happen on Monday. But did you know that in 1933 they changed the date of the inauguration. It was originally a ceremony performed on March 4^th and then moved up to January 20^th.

This political event was essentially set for early spring and then moved to the middle of winter. As a result, this change in the date creates some interesting weather issues for such a large outdoor event. Historically, by moving the date up by more than six weeks the chance of precipitation goes way-up with a one in three chance of some type of precipitation for the day. However, the risk snow is only at 10 percent – it is Washington D.C. after all!  

When looking through the record books, the wettest inauguration was for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. It was FDR’s swearing in for his second term that brought almost two inches of rain.  According to reports, it was universally declared a to be “washout” by those in attendance. The coldest on record was for Ronald Reagan’s the second term back in 1985. The temperature was a frigid of seven degrees in Washington, so what did the politicians do? This time they were smart about it and agreed to move the event inside the Capital Building. Snowfall is another big challenge considering the large crowd and the lack of snow removal resources for the city.

The most snow on the ground for an inauguration was for John F. Kennedy back in 1961.  A big snowstorm the night before brought eight inches snow just as preparations were being finalized.  This may not sound like a lot of snow for Rochester, but for Washington DC it was a shut-down type of storm. There was a fear that because of the heavy snow they would have to cancel the parade following the inauguration.  Fortunately, a small army of people were mobilized in order to clear the streets. 

What about the forecast for this year’s inauguration?  Right now, it appears it will be windy and very cold, but fortunately dry. The temperature will likely be in the middle 20s, but the wind chill could be near 10 degrees.  Although not quite on the same par, but Trump’s inauguration could be the coldest since Reagan’s.