Wrap up the pipes and bring your pets indoors because beginning Wednesday the Lake Tahoe Basin will go through a period of several chilly days and marrow-chilling nights.

A frigid arctic air mass is expected to move into California this week, bringing cold weather to the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe Basin that could bring temperatures well below zero at night, with daytime highs only reaching the teens.

The air mass expected to drop from Alaska will bring very little moisture with it, with maybe only a couple inches of snow falling. Low temperatures will drop beginning Wednesday night and will likely stay in the single digits and below zero night through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

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“There’s going to be a free-fall of temperatures that will continue through the week and into the weekend,” said forecaster Wendell Hohmann. “You’ll want to bring your pets in, carry extra clothes if you’re traveling around, wrap your pipes and wear multi-layered clothes, especially if you’re out skiing.”

Daytime highs will likely not even hit the 20 degree mark, at least through Friday, Hohmann added, with the possibility of maybe an degree or two of warm-up through the weekend. Skies will be partly cloudy, and wind could play a factor in how cold it gets, with mountain gusts bringing the wind-chill level down to minus-20 degrees or colder.

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The system will likely not bring record cold temperatures “but it won’t be too far off,” he said.