WASHINGTON — This year’s wild winter has brought everyday life to a halt for people from Boston to Austin, but freezing temperatures are still a good excuse for many Americans to cuddle, according to a new poll.

Given the choice between grabbing an extra blanket or cozying up with someone special when it’s cold, most people choose snuggling over a Snuggie, an Associated Press-Weather Underground poll finds.

All the snuggling may be an effort to counterbalance the negative impact winter has on their mood. Overall, four in 10 say the weather alters their attitude a good amount or more, with nearly three-quarters saying winter gives them the blues.

And some folks take things a whole lot further: 15 per cent of Americans who were cooped up by the weather reported having more sex than usual. (Two-thirds reported no romantic uptick while trapped inside, and 15 per cent reported having less sex than usual.)

These tidbits and more about the weather and romance come courtesy of the AP-Weather Underground poll conducted Jan. 21-26 just before the last big snowstorm.

Michael Loughnane, 58, of Fort Thomas, Ky., is among those who say their love life has been known to pick up when it’s cold outside.

And he was among just 8 per cent of Americans who reported that winter weather left them feeling sexy. (Summer was the season most often selected.)

Loughnane said there are certain advantages to being bundled up when it’s cold: Some people just don’t look that great in shorts, after all.

As for the details of his wintertime sex life: “I’ll leave it to your imagination,” he said.

The poll found that spring gets the most frequent nod from those polled as the best time to fall in love, begin dating someone, meet someone new or get married.

And two-thirds of people find shorts and bathing suits are easier on the eyes than sweaters, scarves and boots.

But it turns out that winter is getting a bad rap as a bad time for romance: Among those in serious, committed relationships but not married, 29 per cent said they began dating in winter, 26 per cent in spring, 26 per cent in fall and 19 per cent in the summer.

Among other findings of the poll:

• People in the Midwest and the Northeast are most likely to get depressed in the winter. Eighty-three per cent of Midwesterners and 76 per cent of Northeasterners found it a downer.

• A quarter of those surveyed have cancelled a date due to the weather, and in the Northeast the figure rises to a third.

• Offered a choice of four seasonal romantic dates, 26 preferred a stroll through a blooming garden, 23 per cent each chose a day at the beach or a long hike to look at changing leaves, and 4 per cent chose ice skating and hot chocolate. Another 24 per cent stuck with a climate-controlled option: dinner and a movie, thank you.

Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather Underground, an Internet weather site, said the weather attracts a lot of interest because everybody has to deal with its effects, making it an easy conversation-starter and a great equalizer for people.

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Masters said he hears all the time about the weather’s effects on mood: “It just gets mentally tiring to get endless winter, and on the flip side of that, people’s moods are enhanced by beautiful, sunny weather,” he said. As for whether romance truly blooms in the spring, Masters says he hasn’t seen any scientific data on the subject, but allows that it’s worked for him.

The AP-Weather Underground poll on weather and relationships was conducted online by Knowledge Networks of Menlo Park, Calif., Jan. 21-26 among 1,125 randomly chosen adults. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.