Timber!

Mother Nature was feeling her oats overnight, letting loose strong winds that toppled numerous trees across Butler County roads, not to mention power lines.

The old lady’s wrath kept fire departments, road crews and utility workers busy much of the night.

Between 7 p.m. Sunday and just after midnight, more than 30 trees were reported down and posing potential hazards to motorists, according to the Butler County Communications Center.

Some of those trees and limbs tumbled onto wires, pulling down lines.

Just before midnight, nearly 2,000 West Penn Power customers did not have electrical service. By 6 a.m. power was still out to 275 customers.

Central Electric Cooperative shortly before dawn also was reporting scattered outages in Clearfield, Clinton and Concord townships in Butler County, according to the company’s website.

Just over the county line in Armstrong County, 136 customers in Perry Township and 75 in Washington Township were still without service around daybreak.

The number of outages peaked at about 9 p.m., with a little more than 1,000 customers without service, said Central Electric director of communications Christina O’Donnell.

A problem at the utility’s Coal Town substation disrupted service between 7 and 8:40 p.m. to 560 customers in Butler County, primarily in the Kiester area, north of Moraine State Park and in the Slippery Rock area.

“With the rain-softened ground and the winds we saw, you can expect this kind of thing,” said Pat Herald, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, referring to the fallen trees and power lines.

The National Weather service predicted the winter storm that struck Western Pennsylvania, having issued a wind advisory for Butler and surrounding counties from 6 p.m. Sunday through 7 a.m. today.

The forecast was for winds between 15 and 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.

“And that’s pretty much what you saw,” Herald said.

The storm-packed winds were attributed to an area of low pressure clearing the region with a cold front moving in.

Trees were reportedly knocked down throughout the county.

Harmony Fire District volunteer firefighters, who serve Harmony and Zelienople, were called out four times between 8:45 and 9:35 for trees on roads.

The Unionville Volunteer Fire Department also responded four different times — twice for wires down and twice for trees down.

Fallen power lines on North Benbrook Road in Center Township about 7 p.m. caused a not-so-minor outage.

“Power was out for a decent amount of homes in the northern half of Center Township and some of Clay Township,” said Unionville Fire Chief Nathan Wulff.

Service was reportedly lost up to five hours in that area.

Firefighters also had to battle blinding snow conditions that struck between 9:30 and 10 p.m. while Unionville crews were called to Route 528 in Brady Township for a tree on the road.

“It was an absolute white-out on Route 8,” Wulff said. “You couldn’t even tell if you were moving because it was snowing so hard and blowing so hard.

“It was impressive.”

The Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Department, meanwhile, answered three separate calls for fallen trees in just a 12-minute stretch.

While driving to the first call at 9:46 p.m. for a tree down on Fallecker Road, Paul Patten, Oneida Valley VFD’s assistant chief, happened upon an even larger tree blocking Shearer Road.

Firefighters closed the road and notified the Oakland Township road department. The road remained closed for up to 45 minutes to allow crews to cut up the tree with chain saws and remove the debris.

Herald said the weather service is predicting a calmer week ahead.

Scattered snow showers were to end before noon today with a high temperature near 32 and winds 13 to 15 mph.

The low tonight is expected to be about 24 with a west wind around 6 mph and no precipitation.

For Tuesday, he said, mostly sunny skies are predicted with a high near 44.

Mostly cloudy skies and a chance of snow showers are on tap for Wednesday with a high near 34.