A frosty presidential inauguration? Trump moves ceremony indoors

US President-elect Donald Trump faces 1 of the coldest inauguration days successful modern past erstwhile helium is sworn successful Monday.

Faced with an icy polar vortex, United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to determination his upcoming inauguration ceremonial indoors.

Traditionally, the ceremonial has taken spot outdoors, astir commonly connected the marble steps of the Capitol successful Washington, DC.

But with meteorologists predicting 1 of the coldest inauguration days successful caller history, Trump decided connected Friday that information mandated a flimsy venue change.

“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t privation to spot radical hurt, oregon injured, successful immoderate way,” Trump wrote connected his level Truth Social.

“It is unsafe conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and adjacent horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that volition beryllium extracurricular for galore hours.”

Trump’s ceremony, scheduled for Monday, volition present instrumentality spot beneath the Capitol Rotunda, its curved sandstone walls covered with paintings from American history.

Cosimos Cendo, of Washington, DC, skis down Main Street successful Annapolis, Maryland, connected January 6 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Only 1 different president has been sworn successful nether the Capitol dome wrong the rotunda: Trump’s chap Republican Ronald Reagan.

Reagan’s 2nd inauguration, successful 1985, was besides 1 of the coldest, adjacent surpassing the freezing temperatures projected for Monday. The upwind hovered astir -14 degrees Celsius, oregon conscionable 7 degrees Fahrenheit, with the upwind chill making the aerial consciousness adjacent colder.

For Monday, the National Weather Service is projecting temperatures to highest astatine a frosty -6 degrees Celsius, of 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trump compared his concern to Reagan’s successful Friday’s societal media post. He besides addressed the question of capableness successful specified a confined abstraction arsenic the rotunda.

Roughly 250,000 guests had tickets to ticker the inauguration adjacent and astir the Capitol steps, nether the archetypal plan.

Trump confirmed that “various Dignitaries and Guests” would inactive articulation him successful the rotunda to witnesser the ceremonial successful person.

“This volition beryllium a precise beauteous acquisition for all, and particularly for the ample TV audience!” Trump wrote.

But different in-person attendees were encouraged to spell to the Capitol One Arena, wherever the inauguration would beryllium streamed live.

“I volition articulation the assemblage astatine Capital One, aft my Swearing In,” Trump added. He plans to person a “victory rally” determination arsenic good connected Sunday.

The US Capitol has hosted inaugurations connected 55 abstracted occasions, with 34 ceremonies happening connected the East Portico, a colonnade connected the extracurricular of the building.

Relatively fewer person happened indoors, but erstwhile the ceremonial has moved inside, the Senate enclosure and the House of Representatives person some been utilized arsenic a backdrop.

Cold upwind has wreaked havoc connected past ceremonies that person unfolded outdoors. In 1873, for instance, President Ulysses Grant had subject servicemembers illness astir him, and the icy winds made his code hard to hear.

And historians speculate however overmuch damp conditions connected inauguration time contributed to the decease of William Henry Harrison, who caught pneumonia and died lone a period into his presidency.

His inaugural code was the longest successful US past — and his clip successful office, the shortest.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies