(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years.
An arctic front will pass by Washington, D.C., on Sunday night and winds will pick up out of the northwest, ushering in arctic air.
Monday’s temperature will be at its highest — about 25 degrees — when the clock strikes Inauguration Day at midnight. Throughout the course of the day, the temperature will slowly fall.
When Trump is sworn in at noon, the temperature will be about 18 or 19 degrees. Due to the wind, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — will be between 5 and 10 degrees.
By 7 p.m., when the inauguration balls begin, the temperature will be near 13 degrees with a wind chill of minus 1.
The coldest January Inauguration Day on record was 1985 for President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration.
The temperature that morning fell to a low of 4 degrees below zero. The temperature was just 7 degrees at noon, moving Reagan’s swearing-in ceremony inside and canceling the parade.
The daytime high was only 17 degrees.
The warmest January inauguration was also for Reagan, in 1981, at a balmy 55 degrees.
The warmest inauguration ever was 89 degrees on Aug. 9, 1974, when President Gerald Ford was sworn in following President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
Inaugurations used to be held in March until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, stating that the president’s term began at noon on Jan. 20.
One of the most memorable January inaugurations was President John F. Kennedy’s in 1961. A snowstorm struck D.C. the night before, and the 8 inches of snow forced people to ditch their cars and created a massive traffic jam.
(NEW ORLEANS , LA) — A suspect who was “hellbent” on killing as many people as possible drove a pickup truck around barricades and plowed his vehicle through a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans at a high rate of speed, leaving at least 10 dead and injuring dozens of others early Wednesday, city and federal officials said.
After mowing down numerous people over a three-block stretch on the famed thoroughfare while firing shots into the crowd, the suspect allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing the suspect who was not immediately identified, sources said. At least two police officers were shot and wounded, authorities said.
Explosive devices found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently found to be viable, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific incident a “terrorist attack” and the FBI said it was being investigated as an act of terror. The bloodshed comes on the heels of a deadly vehicle ramming attack in Germany. Fears of such attacks were a growing concern among law enforcement as well as attacks by lone actors at winter holiday events.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. The truck used in the attack appeared to be a F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle. A black flag appeared to be attached to the vehicle, but its significance was not immediately known.
By the time the melee — which was described by city officials as a “mass casualty incident” — had ended, at least 35 people were injured, New Orleans police and city officials said. Most of the victims appeared to be local, officials said.
“He was hellbent on creating the carnage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said at a news conference early Wednesday.
The New Orleans Police Department said the attack occurred despite the force being “staffed 100%” for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, a college football game played annually on New Year’s Day. An additional 300 officers were on duty from partner agencies, the police department said.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack and has been in touch with Cantrell to offer support, according to the White House.
“The FBI is already on the ground supporting local law enforcement in the investigation and the President will continue to be briefed throughout the day,” the White House said in a statement.
Local authorities asked the FBI for assistance early on Wednesday, a senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News. A command center was being set up, the source said. The FBI was set to lead the investigation.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, adding that his family was praying for the victims and first responders.
A witness, who requested to be identified only as Paul S., told ABC News he was startled awake by the sound of what he initially thought was fireworks.
“Around 3:15 [a.m.], we heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ sound followed by a sound that sounded like fireworks going off, like big fireworks all at once,” Paul S. said. “Then it turned out that was the crash.”
He said he looked outside his hotel window, he saw a chaotic scene with bodies strewn on the street below.
“What I was was if you can imagine a street with brick and whatnot littered all around the sidewalk, and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid,” Paul S. said.
He said he observed a man who had been thrown from his wheelchair lying on the ground next to the truck involved in in the attack writhing in pain.
“There was also a body underneath a scissor lift,” Paul S. said.
Leading up to the holidays, federal law enforcement and intelligence had warned police around the country that low-tech vehicle ramming was a key area of concern and that they needed to prepare — and that was before the German Christmas market attack on Dec. 20, in which five people were killed and hundreds were injured.
In a Dec. 9 assessment for the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, federal and local agencies wrote: “We remain concerned about the use of vehicle ramming against high-profile outdoor events…Vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West, marked by a continued interest by (terrorists, extremists) and lone offenders in targeting crowded pedestrian areas.”
“There are 30 injured patients that have been transported by NOEMS and 10 fatalities,” the city said, using an acronym for the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.
The police later said at least 35 people were injured and taken to five local hospitals — University Medical Center, Touro Hospital, East Jefferson General Hospital, Ochsner Medical Center Jefferson Campus and Ochsner Baptist Campus.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Monday held Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to turn over personal property and information to two Georgia election workers he was found to have defamed.
Judge Lewis Liman sided with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who said Giuliani has “not turned over a single dollar” to satisfy the $148 million judgment against the former New York City mayor.
The election workers said Giuliani failed to relinquish “a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt, signed Reggie Jackson picture, signed Yankee Stadium picture, or many of the various household goods or furnishings that he valued at $20,000 and which public photographs show he possessed in his New York Apartment.”
Giuliani was found liable in 2023 for defaming Freeman and Moss by falsely accusing them of tampering with the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WILLINGBORO TOWNSHIP, NJ) — A 32-year-old woman has been arrested after allegedly bludgeoning her mother to death inside her own home, officials said.
Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Willingboro Township Police Chief Ian S. Bucs announced that Breanna Beacham — who was temporarily staying at her mother’s residence on Hopewell Lane in Willingboro Township — was charged on Tuesday with killing her mother in the victim’s home in the Hawthorne Park neighborhood.
“Police were called to the residence just before 4 p.m. for a report of an assault in progress,” according to a statement from the Burlington County prosecutor’s office on Tuesday. “Upon arrival, investigators discovered the body of Kim Beacham-Hanson, 57.”
The preliminary investigation determined that she had been bludgeoned to death, officials said.
“An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood concluded her death was a homicide that was caused by multiple blunt injuries,” according to the Burlington County prosecutor’s office.
Beacham was taken into custody at the home early Tuesday evening and lodged in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly pending a detention hearing in Superior Court. The case will now be prepared for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment.
Breanna Beacham has now been charged with first degree murder, third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth degree unlawful possession of a weapon .
The motive for the attack remains under investigation.
