How is the winter weather going to affect the Iowa Republican caucuses?

DES MOINES, Iowa — It's been bitterly cold and snowy, with dangerous white-out gusts and wind chill numbers reaching the negative double digits — and while the weather poses real-life dangers, it's had political implications, too.

In the run-up to Monday night's Republican presidential caucuses, more than 20 candidate events were canceled, postponed or moved virtually. The hopefuls themselves acknowledged that the freeze could affect how many folks turn out to vote in the first nominating contest of the 2024 race.

The unusual rules of the caucuses — which are held at a specific point in time on Monday night and require lengthy participation — aren't like normal primaries, and candidates often rely on extensive efforts to motivate their supporters to make it out.

«It's all indoors,» front-runner Donald Trump said on Saturday, downplaying the weather. «So you're not going to have a problem. Just do not stay home. Grab all your friends, grab everybody you can and don't believe the polls. The polls have us winning by a lot — pretend we're one down. Because if you do that, everyone's gonna get out.»

Rival Ron DeSantis had this message on Saturday: «The blizzard is not going to stop us, we will fight. The wind chill is not going to stop us, we will fight.»

Iowa political scientists, political leaders, voters and campaign strategists were split on whether, because of the weather, Monday night will again see steadily increasing turnout numbers or not.

«Caucuses are low turnout events anyway. So the people that would be deterred by cold weather would be people who probably wouldn't have gone for other reasons,» Bruce Nesmith, a political Science professor at Coe College, told ABC News.

Kelley Koch, the chairperson of the Dallas County