Biathlon in the wind at the Beijing Winter Olympics

Grey and bitter in the small hours, the air feeling near zero at midnight under low cloud and sliding colder by the hour, a hard wind pushing it down to near 8°F below by 8am. The cloud thinned through the morning and was gone by noon. Sun did nothing. The afternoon felt near 4° below under a clear hard sky with the gusts never easing, and then the real cold came with the dark, the wind rising toward gale force and the air feeling near 22° below by the last hour.