Nope, wasn’t gonna go down that road.

I mean, I started, got as far as the first curve and then hit the brakes. After sliding another two car-lengths before actually stopping, I put the truck in reverse and gently pushed down on the gas pedal. The wheels spun for a second or two and then caught as I aimed for the side of the road where there was enough snow and dry grass to get a bit of traction.

The rest of the road was sheer ice.

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I probably should have known something like this was going to happen. When I’d headed out the forecast called for highs around 4 C in the city and 0 C further east. And with it being a sunny day, I knew there would be fluctuations in both temperatures. Which I saw in action not far down the road.

I was heading due east, aiming first toward Eagle and Namaka Lakes before dropping into the broad Crowfoot Creek valley between the Wintering Hills and the Bow River. I was on the scout, once again, for snowy owls. Not had much luck with them this winter but if you don’t look, you don’t find.

It was sunny and bright as I drove among the fields near Cheadle but I noticed what looked like fog both in front of me and to the south. Could be, I guess, probably was. But what I was actually seeing was a temperature inversion.

Warm air drifting in from the west was riding over cold air closer to the ground and where the two layers met, the cold caused the moisture in the warm air to condense. That’s what was forming the fog-like phenomenon.

And I could clearly see it happening from the top of a rise west of Eagle Lake.

Looking due east toward the next height of land — Hammer Hill — the air was clear where I was, misty at my eye level to the east and then clear again where the highway dipped between the two heights. Driving down the hill, I watched as the thermometer on the dash went from -1 C to -10 C in the space of maybe a........

© Calgary Herald