We live in New England and the cold weather will wreak havoc on your gates!
When its very cold for extended periods of time the frost penetrates the ground. This results in the wet ground expanding as it freezes and that causes frost heave. Frost heave can move fence posts, sometimes raising them inches at a time. It may even raise the ground between fence posts. This may happen to your walkway or driveway no matter what its made of.
This may result in the ground hitting the bottom of the gate when it never previously did. It may also move the gate posts out of plumb. In either case, the gate may no longer close and latch properly.
The best course of action in this situation is to wait until the frost dissipates and most of the time the gate will operate as it did before the frost. If you do need to adjust your gate in the winter time you will most likely need to adjust it back again in the spring. We install all gates with adjustable hinges for this reason!