A rainy Christmas combined with recent bitterly cold weather has left large patches of ice on Austin streets, which has presented problems for city crews.

Because of the low temperatures, which have hovered near zero for most of the week, the ice has been particularly hard to deal with.

And Austin isn’t alone with the dilemma. Similar weather in the Twin Cities has hampered road cleanup, Minneapolis Public Works Director of Winter Operations Mike Kennedy told Minnesota Public Radio.

“Until the temperatures come up, there isn’t really much anybody can do,” Kennedy said.

Wednesday, however, provided a glimmer of hope locally, assistant city engineer Steven Lang said. With temperatures up around 15 degrees, Lang said the ice problem began to lessen.

“If we had some warm weather, the stuff would start to break up,” Lang said.

Lang said primary city arteries like Oakland Avenue and Main Street are pretty well cleared up. However, smaller residential roads still have a substantial amount of ice. Lang said the problem is compounded by icy boulevards that make work difficult on city crews.

To deal with the ice, Lang said salt and sand are best, though he said neither are effective in extremely cold weather. The city also sometimes uses motor graders downtown to peel away ice.

Additionally, all city plows have “underbelly plows” that apply pressure downward and sometimes chip away at ice. Again, however, these are most effective with warmer temperatures, Lang said.

In the past two days, snow has piled on top of the sheets of ice, but Lang said the roads haven’t gotten too bad yet.

As of Thursday afternoon, a snow emergency had not been declared in Austin. Snow emergencies are typically declared after four inches of snow falls in a relatively quick time period.

According to the National Weather Service, just less than four inches of snow had fallen in southeastern Minnesota during the recent storm as of Friday morning. Forecasts show a chance of flurries Friday, but a mostly clear weekend. Temperatures will near highs of 30 mid next week.