Drivers east of Calgary were advised to hunker down and stay put unless they absolutely need to drive somewhere, as RCMP said roads were in terrible condition.
Late Thursday afternoon, RCMP said they were receiving a received a high volume of collision-related calls for service in the Brooks, Alta., area due to weather and road conditions.
One such collision occurred in the Scandia area, where RCMP shut down Highway 36 in both directions due to a fatal collision between a semi-truck and SUV.
RCMP said the fatal crash happened just after 1 p.m. near Township Road 154
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The highway was covered in black ice, with blowing snows causing poor visibility.
RCMP said firefighters and EMS arrived on scene and declared the driver of the SUV, a 66-year-old resident of Vauxhall, Alta., dead.
Police said while the investigation is ongoing, preliminary information suggested the SUV collided with one of the trailers from the semi-truck, which had drifted over the median, due to the weather. The highway reopened for travel later Thursday evening.
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Because of the poor conditions, police asked drivers to avoid all non-essential travel in the Brooks area of southeastern Alberta.
Those who did need to travel were asked to please drive to the conditions of the road and be aware that a mixture of ice, snow and sleet has made a lot of the highways, as well as most other roads, very slippery.
The weather in Brooks on Thursday called for temperatures in the minus 20s, snow and winds of 20 km/h, gusting to 40 km/h, becoming light early in the evening.
The wind chill was expected to be -30 in the evening and -25 overnight.
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