The bone-chilling temperatures this past week presented freezing challenges to people who make their living working outdoors.

They depended mainly on layering clothing to keep warm for the hours they spent in the cold and snow.

At a home construction site at The Gables in Adams Township, workers on Friday seemed cheerful despite the snow and the temperature, which was hovering around 10 degrees.

Lee Robinson, who works for JPC Contracting of Natrona Heights, said the key to being warm is to dress for the weather, but in a manner that allows mobility.

On Friday, he wore long underwear, sweat pants, blue jeans, two T-shirts, two Under Armor shirts, and a hooded sweat shirt.

He said running from the supply trailer to the saw to the ladder also goes a long way toward winter warmth.

“Doing the work we do, it's not really cold in this (weather),” Robinson said.

His buddy George Stettmier, who was at the top of a ladder, agreed.

“The heat is in the tools!” Stettmier shouted.

Stettmier chose long underwear, insulated blue jeans, two sweatshirts, a hooded sweat shirt and knit cap on Friday.

“I've got a jacket, but I can't work in it,” Stettmier said of the cumbersome outerwear.

The men maintain a small bonfire on the job site in subfreezing temperatures, and Stettmier takes advantage of it at lunch.

“I just throw a can of soup right in the fire for lunch,” he said.

Rick McCullough, another worker, said the men work outdoors for eight to 12 hours per day.

“It's all we know how to do,” said McCullough, who has been in the construction business for 15 years. “We love it.”

Stettmier said after a hot meal and a shower at the end of a long, cold day, it's difficult to resist collapsing.

“I try to stay moving when I get home,” he said.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature peaked at 24 degrees on Monday, the warmest day Butler County would have all week. Highs for Tuesday through Friday were 13, 16, 21 and 18 degrees, respectively.

Each night this week, the thermometer plummeted to 11 degrees or lower, bottoming out at 4 degrees on Wednesday. Accounting for wind chill, the outside temperature in the county each night was anywhere between minus 10 and minus 19 degrees.

Another outdoor worker who gets busy when the weather turns bad is Chad McCall of Fisher's Service and Towing in Butler, who is at the wheel of a tow truck when extremely cold weather makes lots of car batteries less than reliable.

He said part of the challenge of the job is regularly going in and out of the tow truck, moving from the heated truck to the bitter cold outside.

“That makes it hard on you,” McCall said.

When on a call, operators often find themselves getting wet or having to lie on the ground. The steel-toed boots that most operators wear also often makes their feet cold.

McCall said the best thing to do is to get back in the truck or go back to the shop when a call is over and try to stay warm.

He said that the heater in the truck is so effective that he and other drivers sometimes end up taking their coats off in the truck.

The average shift lasts 8 hours, but that can vary depending on how busy the shop is.

Many calls are quick, but on more difficult calls an operator can spend about 30 minutes out in the cold. However, McCall said that operators know what they are getting into and it is their job to make the customer more comfortable than they are.

“The customer pretty much always comes first,” McCall said.

Chuck Bauer, owner of Bauer Excavating of Butler, said waterproof boots and layered clothing are key to keeping warm in cold weather.

“That's about all you can do,” said Bauer. “That and keep working so you stay warm. Keep busy.”

Some of Bauer's crew operate equipment, but other work is manual labor, he said, leading to cycles of sweating and cooling down.

“Quality long underwear helps the men to keep warm and dry,” he said. “The kind that keeps moisture away from skin and absorbed by cotton layers.”

The men also wear insulated pants and coveralls, neck warmers, tassel caps and sweatshirts, he said.

At the Saxonburg Area Authority, workers this week were outdoors looking for underground gas tanks from closed stations. They were locating the tanks so People's Gas could avoid hitting them while installing a new line along Main Street.

Tom Knights, authority director of operations, said cold temperatures lead to frequent rotation of workers while they're outside.

The crew members are supplied with warmer clothing.

“We issue a series of different types of clothing,” Knights said.

One of the more visible outdoor jobs is a postal letter carrier.

Jeff Parchem, postmaster at the Zelienople Post Office, said he has four employees with walking routes. He said a carrier spends more than six hours carrying mail to homes and businesses.

“They just layer up really good, and use hand and feet warmers,” Parchem said.

The carriers can get in their warm vehicles for a few minutes during the day, but they largely brave the weather without complaint, Parchem said.

“All these guys are veteran carriers,” Parchem said. “They just joke about it.”

He said postal workers who have motor routes may have it worse than those on foot, because they are sitting in a moving vehicle with the window open.

“That can be worse than walking around because at least (the walkers) are moving,” Parchem said.

Outdoor workers will get a slight reprieve this coming week as temperatures are expected to be in the 20s Sunday and reach the 50s by Tuesday. Unfortunately, according to the National Weather Service, the weekend snow is expected to turn into a “wintry mix” by Sunday night, then rain throughout the early part of the week.

By the end of the week, daily high temperatures will again be in the 20s and more snow is expected.

Eagle staff writers Paula Grubbs, Sandy Pontius, John Bojarski, Ed Biller and Tom Victoria contributed to this report.