The cold is back for the Winter Games.

After two straight balmy Olympics where some might have wondered if it was even winter, let alone the worldB次元官网网址檚 pre-eminent freeze-dependent sporting event, athletes and visitors alike will finally experience a serious chill in their bones during the games in mountainous Pyeongchang.

How cold is it?

So cold that tears spring to the eyes. So cold the ink in a pen grows sluggish and fades as it scribbles over a page. So cold that South Korean men sometimes flash back to being posted for hours on the frozen frontline during mandatory military service. So cold at least six people were treated for hypothermia last month after a pop concert at the open-air Olympic Stadium.

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B次元官网网址淲e all hope it will be better in February, but if itB次元官网网址檚 like it is now, there will be big trouble. ItB次元官网网址檚 just too cold for outsiders,B次元官网网址� says Choi Jong-sik, 64, smirking in his short-sleeve shirt as a visiting reporter removes layer after layer of thick outerwear for an interview at ChoiB次元官网网址檚 Pyeongchang restaurant.

Vancouver and Sochi, where ski jumpers were landing in puddles, got complaints for being too warm, as might Beijing in 2022, but the weather in Pyeongchang will likely dazzle spectators, and confound organizers and athletes, in its bitterness.

Pyeongchang sits nearly half a mile above sea level in the northeastern corner of South Korea, not too far from the border with the North. It is one of the coldest parts of the country B次元官网网址� wind chill in February is often in single digits (Fahrenheit) B次元官网网址� and notorious for a powerful, biting wind that gathers force as it barrels down out of Siberia and the Manchurian Plain and then across the jagged granite peaks of North Korea.

It can be hard to get people here to talk about, or even acknowledge, the cold. It is simply a fact of life, and stoicism is often the rule when confronted with outsidersB次元官网网址� weather-related questions.

B次元官网网址淭he only thing foreigners can do is the same thing locals do: bundle up,B次元官网网址� Nam Sun-woo, 60, a fishmonger in Pyeongchang, says. B次元官网网址淣ot many outsiders understand how cold it gets here. ItB次元官网网址檚 not like where theyB次元官网网址檙e from. This kind of cold is completely different.B次元官网网址�

The weather will be on display, and maybe a major nuisance, at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Hoenggye village. The much-criticized 35,000-seat open-air pentagon-shaped arena, which cost 118.4 billion won ($107 million), will be used only four times B次元官网网址� during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics B次元官网网址� and then torn down.

On a recent blustery day, from the top of a nearby 17-story building, the white angular stadium looks a little like a giant discarded Lego piece. It rises isolated on a wide, flat plain, muscular mountains cascading down behind it. It looks vulnerable and exposed B次元官网网址� all those thousands of orange and pink seats laid bare below the wide dome of sky B次元官网网址� but also slightly magical as the sun glitters off millions of tiny ice flakes blowing across the plain.

The wind is brutal, and it pounds the entire area, including the stadium and the rooftop, where the gusts rattling through the big AC units sound like a doomed bomber plummeting out of the sky in an old war movie.

Despite the cold, organizers have done little to protect stadium visitors. Spectators will have to sit exposed for as long as five hours in the elements during the nighttime ceremonies. There are no built-in heating systems for the seats and the corridors, and itB次元官网网址檚 too late to build a roof and too expensive to install central heat, officials say.

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Many of the concertgoers last month where six were treated for hypothermia reportedly flocked to the arenaB次元官网网址檚 toilets for a rare bit of respite from the cold.

Organizers plan to provide each spectator at the Olympics ceremonies with a raincoat, a small blanket and heating pads B次元官网网址� one to sit on, one for the hands and a pair for the feet. They also plan to install polycarbonate walls above the highest seats across the two northwest sides of the stadium to block the strongest winds. About 40 portable gas heaters will be placed in aisles between the rows of plastic seats, and lots of hot coffee and tea, fish sticks and heated buns will be on sale.

Still, by the time the opening ceremony starts at around 8 p.m., the wind chill at the stadium could be minus 14 degrees Celsius (about 7 F). That is much colder than the wind chill at the ceremonies for the Vancouver and Sochi Games, which were 5 degrees and 4 degrees C, respectively, according to South Korean officials.

When Associated Press journalists visited the area earlier this month, it was minus 18 degrees C (a little below zero F) midmorning at a resort near Olympic Stadium.

Sochi temperatures soared at times. On Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, for instance, it was 16 degrees C (61 degrees F).

The coastal areas of Gangneung, where skating and hockey will be held, are warmer than Pyeongchang. But itB次元官网网址檚 still cold. Tourists can be seen in thick quilted coats standing on piers and posing for pictures as huge, frigid blue-green waves crash behind them; they run and laugh, trying to dodge the spray.

Locals often smirk when they see bundled up tourists waddle around Pyeongchang like penguins. Choi, after an interview, stands outside his restaurant, still in his short-sleeve shirt, smoking a cigarette while a well-layered-up reporter shivers nearby. B次元官网网址淪ometimes I go out like this and the people in warm coats look at me like IB次元官网网址檓 crazy.B次元官网网址�

A drive into the mountains twists through isolated former mining towns and past frozen fields, frozen rivers, frozen forests and dramatic granite peaks that look in places like theyB次元官网网址檙e sliding into the valleys. The sun sparkles on the brittle ice covering the landscape; the wind roars through the pine trees like traffic on the interstate.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 cold, and itB次元官网网址檚 going to get colder. But what can we do?B次元官网网址� says Ahn Young Ju, 36, a restaurant owner in the remote town of Nammyeon in Jeongseon county, which will host the downhill skiing events. B次元官网网址淲e were born here, so we try not to think too much about it.B次元官网网址�

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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung and video journalist Yong Jun Chang contributed to this report.

Foster Klug, The Associated Press

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