When a professional meteorologist throws up his hands, you know it's been a dicey winter.

“I've had enough,” said Lee Hendricks of the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. “I'm ready for spring already.”

Hendricks said the Butler area will experience snow showers after residents go to bed on Monday night, but not much accumulation is expected.

“On Tuesday, a vigorous cold front will come through,” Hendricks said.

The cold front that will hold the area in its icy grip will begin innocently enough on Tuesday, when temperatures will be in the 30s, Hendricks said.

At nightfall, the mercury will begin to drop and quickly hit zero, with a Tuesday night wind chill predicted at 15 below zero.

On Wednesday, temperatures will top out at zero to 5 degrees with a wind chill of 20 below.

Furnaces will work overtime on Wednesday night, when the air temperature will be 10 below and the wind chill will be 30 below.

“These wind chills come once or twice a year,” Hendricks said. “It's not that unusual.”

Thursday will be no better, Hendricks said, as the mercury will only climb to 5 notches above zero with wind chills predicted to fall to 30 below.

“We'll warm up on Thursday night,” Hendricks said, “with lows only around zero.”

The expected air temperature of 15 to 20 degrees on Friday will deceive residents into thinking the cold snap is over, but temperatures will go back into the basement on Friday night, at around zero.

Saturday's forecast includes highs in the mid 20s, Hendricks said.

While most of the week will be all but intolerable temperature-wise, Hendricks said we will not break a record.

He said the longest period of temperatures at zero or below came during 52 consecutive hours from 6 a.m. on Jan. 18, 1994, to 10 a.m. on Jan. 20.

“The coldest it got was 22 below,” Hendricks said. “That cold snap in 1994 was a bugger.”

Some county residents may remember the county's longest stretch of temperatures below 32 degrees, which occurred for 33 days between Dec. 26, 1977, to Jan. 27, 1978.

“I remember that one,” Hendricks said.

He said while this week will be uncomfortable, it will not go down in the annals of weather history.

“It doesn't look like we are going to make it anywhere near the records,” Hendricks said.

His advice for residents who find themselves out and about this week is to dress in many layers and expose the least amount of skin in the brutal cold.

“Tossle caps, a ski mask, whatever it takes to cover as much skin as possible,” Hendricks said.

He also recommends bringing pets indoors during the extreme cold, as well as completing snow shoveling slowly and while taking many breaks.

Road conditions may be iffy during the entire cold snap, with snow expected on and off all week.

Hendricks said salt stops melting snow and ice at about 12 degrees. While the sun can help salt do its job during frigid days, the surface freezes at night, causing black ice.

“Also, be aware of your car's battery,” Hendricks said.

He said batteries will weaken over time and the extra pull on the charge necessitated by freezing temperatures can cause an older battery to quit.

While warming shelters are normally set up in the county in such cruel temperatures, a dispatcher at the 911 center said the list is not distributed to his office until severe weather is imminent.