The Elfstedentocht takes place anytime the weather is cold enough that the canals connecting 11 cities in the province form a thick and relatively unbroken sheet of ice.
When the weather is dreary and cold, there's nothing better than cooking something that heats up the house and fills it with fragrant aromas unless it's someone else doing the cooking.
The only challenge is the weather, which can get cold in some places.
Many people believe that the only risk of winter weather is getting a cold but the risk is much greater.
The cold weather is expected to linger until next weekend when temperatures could return to normal.
The cold weather is set to continue, with "significant snow" expected across Wales on Friday.
"The cold weather is forcing people into the shops, " said a spokeswoman for the New West End Company.
But even in summer, at an altitude of more than 3, 000 metres, the winds are fierce and frequent, the weather is changeable, and the nights are bitterly cold.
The cold weather is thought to have been responsible for an increase in the number of chest infections requiring hospital treatment and there have also been several outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug norovirus.
Ms Wilson believes the prolonged cold weather, which is dangerous for those with respiratory or cardiac problems, was a factor in the increase in numbers of people going to the QEH.
Cold weather is harder on the bus, and hard on the passengers -- everybody's cranky when it's cold.
The severe cold weather in Washington DC is turning people off from attending the presidential inauguration.
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Honda says the FCX is the first fuel-cell vehicle that works in extreme cold weather (as low as -20 degrees Celsius or -4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Although bitterly cold on Sunday, the weather is expected to be calmer then.
The unusual weather is being caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltic states, forcing cold winds across Europe.
Cold weather "is probably the biggest challenge for people who want to run barefoot, " says Tamara Gerken, the 46-year-old founder of the Atlanta-based Barefoot Runners Society.
The UK is in the grip of its longest cold snap for almost 30 years, and extreme or severe weather warnings are still in place across the UK for both snow and ice.
The range of electric car batteries is known to shrink sometimes in cold weather, as industry experts have discovered.
It is possible, of course, that this is mere coincidence: no wind and cold weather at the same time, bound to happen sometimes.
One thing is certain: The chances for severe weather are on the decline as a cold front moves through the region, said weather service meteorologist Gene Hatch in Springfield, Mo.
The crop damage is dealing a further blow to Britain's farming industry, which is already reeling from a spate of recent livestock deaths due to the cold weather.
The Department of Health in England tries to relieve the pressure by offering flu vaccinations to the most at risk groups, while local government is given money to try to help those most at risk of the cold weather.
Jo Webber, of the NHS Confederation, accepts that a spate of extremely cold weather could make matters worse, although she believes the NHS will cope with whatever is thrown at it.
The company is gearing up to sell it in more markets by yearend and is adding features to increase its cold-weather capability as it rolls out to the Northeast and other states with harsh winters.
Previous work has offered income, education, low levels of agricultural labour (which is replaced by more mentally stimulating jobs), climate (the challenge of surviving cold weather might provoke the evolution of intelligence) and even distance from humanity's African homeland (novel environments could encourage greater intelligence) as explanations for national differences in IQ.
In Florida and California, where there is no cold weather to deter buyers, sales volumes don't shift as much during the year.
For others, it is about time that the biggest game of the year was staged in a climate that cold-weather teams are accustomed to.
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