Sometimes Mother Nature can be kind. Other times she can be cruel. And then there are times when she will toilet paper your lawn, slap a pie in your face and give you a wedgie – all at the same time.

Freezing rain (underkjølt regn) is Nature’s way of pulling a real prank on you. Lately we have been enjoying stable, cold temperatures reaching -15°C or colder. It may not encourage you to go outside in the morning, but the light is beautiful and the air is fresh and crisp.

Then, out of nowhere, came a warm front with rain. It’s always good to get some relief from the cold, melting away some excess snow and making our animals’ lives a little easier. The only problem was, the ground and everything on it was still frozen. The result? Rain falls on roofs, balconies, cars and roads and freezes instantly. Everything becomes glazed in a thick layer of ice within minutes.

This became very real to me when I wanted to drive home from work. My car had suddenly become 1/4 inch thicker. The doors were glued shut, and I didn’t dare to dislodge the windscreen wipers for the fear of ripping them to pieces. I had to walk to the nearby service station, buy a steel ice scraper, and commence to chisel the glaze away from the windscreen enough to see the road ahead of me. After 15 minutes or so I managed to make a little slit I could squint through so I could crawl home. No point driving to speed, the road was an ice rink anyway.

Fortunately, the phenomenon is a rare one here in the north, and it doesn’t last long. The warm weather that caused the rain will usually melt away the ice within a day. I had been “punk’d” by nature.