How to play Pokémon Go in the winter without freezing

How do you keep catching Pokémon in the winter without freezing from the cold? With these tips!

It's beginning to look a lot like the North Pole, especially if you live on the east coast of Canada and the U.S. Pretty soon the snow and ice will creep across the hemisphere, and what was beautiful green parks and sun-beaten streets will become winter wonderland. It'll be beautiful but it'll also put a cramp in many people's Pokémon Go play. I've been playing in the snow for the last couple of days, and here's what I've figured out so far!

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The Pokémon Go Thanksgiving event runs from Nov. 23 to Nov. 30. Click/tap here for everything you need to know!

1. Dress warmly and get capacitive gloves!

If you're going to walk and catch, dress for the occasion. Depending on how cold it gets, that could be a light jacket or it could be full-on Gortex gear. Either way, hat, boots, earmuffs, even long undies — dress for prolonged exposure to the cold.

Most of all, get gloves that have capacitive material on the fingers or get capacitive thread you can stitch onto your existing gloves. Yeah, they're cumbersome, and you can take them off if you really need to nimbly catch that Lapras, but they'll let you get the basics done without losing any fingers.

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2. Look to Lure inside!

If it's cold outside, stay inside! There are malls, coffee shops, bars, pubs, restaurants, and similar places that have at least one PokéStop reachable even when you're inside. That means you can grab a drink and some food, and spin away — every 5 minutes.

Add a Lure and you won't have to wait for Pokémon to spawn naturally, up to a half-dozen will be called right to you. I've been doing this at my local mall for a couple of days.

Nice David's Tea or Starbucks Select, working away, spinning every few minutes, catching now and again, and all toasty warm!

Read: How to place a Lure in Pokémon Go

3. Get driven... slowly!

Yes, Pokémon Go has recently added restrictions that make it very hard to play while driving — as well they should! But rural and suburban areas don't have anywhere near the density of cities, putting players there at considerable disadvantage, especially in the winter.

The restrictions only apply when you're going over 30 KM/h, though. So, if you're on a bus or are the passenger in a car, and you're being driven slowly enough, you might still be able to spin some PokéStops.

Better yet, the lockout doesn't seem to apply to Incense. So, if you put some on, and then get driven around, you should still be able to call out up to a half dozen Pokémon.

We piled a bunch of friends into an SUV the other day and while the non-catcher among us drove through a small, quiet part of town with 30 KM/h speed limits, the rest of us spun and caught all the water biome pokes we could find. It worked great.

Read: How to use Incense in Pokémon Go

4. Park and play

Combining the two strategies above, if you don't have any PokéStops inside public places and you don't have anyone to drive you, including buses, the next best thing is to find a park or similar place with a PokéStop or two, drive there, park legally, and then drop your Lure.

That way you can stay warm and still score a few Pokémon, especially if you're packing a hot beverage with you. If it's not too cold, you might even want to get out and walk around a bit to find any spawns or nests hiding nearby.

I've been doing a couple variations of this lately, driving to a local park, spinning away, then walking in to the pedestrian-only parts to hit a few more stops before heading back to shelter. Now that spawns seem to cluster around stops as well, it's been working just fine.

5. Winter wander-land

If you do get a chance to get out over the winter, there are a lot of great activities that can still keep you moving, mon catching, and egg hatching. There's snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking, and even downhill resorts sprinkled with Pokémon and PokéStops.

Avoid blizzards and ice storms, of course, but as long as you're well dressed, and especially if you're with a group of family and friends, playing in winter can be every bit as fun, and as beautiful in its own way, as any season.

Your top winter tips?

If you've figured out awesome ways to play Pokémon in the snow, let me know in the comments below!