President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office from inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, Jan. 20, as dangerously cold temperatures are expected in the Washington, D.C., area.

Trump announced the decision to move the inauguration indoors in a post to his Truth Social account on Friday. 

Since presidential inaugurations are typically large outdoor events, many people are wondering if it’s the first time one has ever been held indoors due to inclement weather.

Is this the first time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors due to inclement weather?

No, this isn’t the first time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors due to inclement weather. 

This is not the first time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors due to inclement weather. It happened most recently in 1985 when former President Ronald Reagan began his second term.

Reagan’s second inauguration on Jan. 21, 1985, occurred during a severe cold snap on the East Coast, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum says. Reagan was sworn in on Sunday, Jan. 20, 1985, but the public inaugural ceremony was scheduled for the next day.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the high temperature that day was only 17 degrees Fahrenheit, and wind chill temperatures during the afternoon were in the range of -10 to -20 degrees. For comparison, the NWS says the normal high temperature for Inauguration Day is 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

As a result of the bitter cold, the public inaugural ceremony was moved indoors, while the inaugural parade and any other outdoor events were canceled. Reagan’s inauguration took place in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where Trump’s second inauguration will be held. 

But Reagan isn’t the only president whose inauguration has been held indoors due to wintry weather. 

In 1909, former President William Howard Taft’s swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day was moved indoors from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol to the Senate Chamber due to a snowstorm, the Council of the District of Columbia says. 

The storm dropped 10 inches of snow over Washington, D.C., with strong winds toppling trees and telephone poles. Trains were stalled, streets were clogged and “all activity was brought to a standstill,” the NWS added.

However, Taft’s inaugural parade did proceed as planned after D.C. “employees worked through the night to clear Pennsylvania Avenue of snow and to spread sand on the road,” the D.C. Council says. 

It took 6,000 people and 500 wagons to clear 58,000 tons of snow and slush from the parade route, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC). 

The first outdoor inauguration was held in 1817, when former President James Monroe was sworn into office, according to the NWS. But he took the oath of office for the second time in 1821 inside the House Chamber because of a snowstorm.

Nearly a decade later, in 1833, former President Andrew Jackson’s inauguration also took place inside the House Chamber “because of his ill health and bad weather,” the JCCIC says.

Other presidents have been sworn in away from the Capitol, too, typically due to an emergency, like when former President Lyndon B. Johnson was inaugurated aboard Air Force One after then-President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.