From 71 to 39 in 10 minutes!

Last night Jim and I decided to take a drive to Hyalite Canyon. A fifteen-minute drive from our house would take us up the mountains to a beautiful lake. Apparently there is good hiking there. We started our assent with our car windows down, enjoying the beautiful 71-degree-summer-evening weather. It felt as if a storm were a'brewin', and sure enough it started to rain. So up went the car windows. Moments later, the rain turned to snain (I'm pretty sure that's what weather folk call a combination of snow and rain!) and as we progressed up the mountain, we soon found ourselves on a road covered with two-inches of frozen slush. Yikes! The air temp had dropped to 39 degrees, and Jim commented how it would be a good idea to always carry jackets in the car! A good idea, a little late. So we reached Hyalite Canyon Lake, but the parking lot was crazy with ice/snain/whatever, so we decided not to hike! In fact we didn't even stop because we thought we might get stuck! I just imagined the headlines "Novice Bozemanites Found Frozen in Hyalite" Yeah, I'm going to get those jackets in the car today!