With the weather forecast anticipating temperature lows of minus thirty in the coming week, Southern Health-Santé Sud officials are cautioning residents to bundle up.

Dr. Denis Fortier, Vice President Medical Services, has been trying to find a concise way to describe what exactly frostbite is and the damages it can cause.

"If you have a cottage and you haven't taken all the water out of the pipes, and they freeze, well those pipes burst. That's how damaging freezing can be. The cells of our skin are just little bags of water with a bunch of chemicals in them. When that little bag of water freezes, it bursts open."

Susceptibility to frostbite fluctuates from person to person, so the how low the temperature at which it occurs varies, but Dr. Fortier says an excellent way to know the frostbite potential is staying up-to-date with weather reports.

"They're often pretty good at letting us know when the risk of frostbite can occur, and we should probably heed their warnings."

When those warnings do come, Dr. Fortier says the best way to deal with frostbite is preventing it entirely. He says a good indication that damage has begun is when you're starting to feel pain or tingling in your skin, and it will become visibly pale.

Depending on the length of time the skin is exposed to the elements, damage can be superficial, almost looking like a burn. If enough exposure has happened and penetrated the deeper levels of the skin, it could lead to complete cell death leading to the loss of fingers, toes, the tips of ears and the nose.

He notes next time you brave the cold, try covering as much exposed skin as humanly possible and to remain aware of the potential for and symptoms of frostbite.