The second inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday is moving indoors at the United States Capitol due to an arctic blast forecasted to hit Washington D.C. this weekend.
It will be the first time the ceremony has not been held on the the Capitol’s western front since the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1985 was also moved inside due to the cold.
So how frigid will it get Monday? The latest forecasts indicates a temperature in the low 20s with wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour around noon when Trump will be sworn into office. Or, in sports parlance, nowhere near vaseline cold.
Sports have broken our brains to view enduring frigid temps as a badge of honor rather than a reason to fret. And there have been so many recent examples of leagues and organizers refusing to budge on scheduling when it comes to extreme cold.
So before you start to convince yourself 20 degrees is too cold to be outside, remember that hundreds of thousands of fans have endured much worse — sometimes in minimal clothing — to support their teams.
Sports played in colder temps than Trump’s inauguration
Jan. 14, 2024: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins (-4 degrees Fahrenheit)
The NFL probably should’ve rescheduled this AFC Wild Card matchup. The wind chill reached -27 degrees Fahrenheit and dozens of fans at Arrowhead Field that day were treated for frostbite — with some needing amputations. Amazingly, this was only the fourth-coldest game in NFL history.
Jan. 1, 2022: Minnesota Wild vs. St. Louis Blues (-5.7 degrees Fahrenheit)
The coldest game in NHL history. Of course it involved Minnesota. The Wild fell to the Blues, 6-4, in the 2022 Winter Classic at Target Field with St. Louis playing mind games in the cold well before puck drop.
https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1477391232557101056
Oct. 22, 1997: World Series Game 4, Florida Marlins vs. Cleveland Indians (38 degrees Fahrenheit)
You may be thinking 38 degrees sounds tropic compared to some of the other games on this list, but the Snow Globe Game had a wind chill of 18 degrees. The only heat came from Cleveland’s bats in 10-3 victory, though the Marlins won the series in seven games.
Dec. 31, 1967: NFL Championship Game, Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys (-13 degrees Fahrenheit)
You knew the Ice Bowl was going to appear on this list. Negative 13 at kickoff with a a -48 wind chill (that’s since been updated to -36 under current guidelines). The heating system under the turf didn’t work properly and the Packers won 21-17 in a game that 50,000 attended and millions more claimed they were at.
1994 Winter Olympics, Lillehammer, Norway (7 degrees Fahrenheit)
It turns out Norway is quite cold in February! The Lillehammer Games are most commonly associated with the fallout of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga, but the brutal frost was even harder to avoid. At night the Olympic Village averaged -13 degrees Fahrenheit.
