PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Officials from the Korea Meteorological Administration sat behind microphones in front of an overflow audience of journalists. Interpreters converted the officials’ words through the headsets of those unable to speak Korean.

There was anxiousness. People put their thumbs to their phones, ready to share the news on Twitter immediately. It was as if Punxsutawney Phil were making his Groundhog Day weather prediction in a teeming conference room.

The message was hardly a revelation: It will be cold at the Winter Olympics.

But in this case, it has been bracingly — at times subzero — cold, especially compared with previous Winter Olympics. Sochi, Russia, was freakishly balmy four years ago. So was Vancouver, British Columbia, four years before that. Veterans of these events suggested that Pyeongchang in 2018 might be the coldest Olympics since 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.

“It’s nice to have it finally feel like winter,” said Ida Sargent, an American cross-country skier. “That’s not something we always see, especially in the last few years, with mild winters. It’s fun to embrace winter and remember that we’re winter-sports athletes.”