Aubri Juhasz / WWNO Originally published on February 16, 2021 8:40 pm Mardi Gras 2021 — muzzled by a pandemic and and dampened by unusual freezing weather — looked about as expected. State Climatologist Barry Keim said this Mardi Gras may be the coldest in recent memory, but was not the coldest in history. “It’s bitterly cold out there, however the 26 degrees in New Orleans is not the coldest Mardi Gras ever,” Keim said. That record was set more than 120 years ago on February 14, 1899, when temperatures dropped to 22 degrees. Read more: As promised, Bourbon Street was off-limits and the Clairborne underpass was fenced off. Both were under watch by the New Orleans Police Department, whose officers were also patrolling the rest of the city.