By TREY MEWES and AMANDA LILLIE

Austin residents experienced 12.5 inches of snow over the weekend during what was considered a historic snowfall in some areas of the state.

Residents were still digging themselves out Sunday afternoon in several neighborhoods. The snow and frigid temperatures caused problems on the roads, as there were several police reports of vehicles stuck in ditches over the weekend.

Police Chief Brian Krueger said many vehicles were found abandoned and stuck in snow on the sides of roads or, in some cases, in the middle of the road.

“There were a lot of vehicles abandoned, just stuck in a driving lane,” Krueger said. “That caused many problems with the tow trucks and plows.”

In fact, 51 vehicles were towed from snow emergency routes in downtown Austin over the weekend, Krueger said. The city had to call in a second towing company to assist with the heavy workload.

To make matters worse, temperatures dropped late Saturday night and early Sunday morning to about 1 degree, according to Todd Shea, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Usually when you get this much snow packed, it’ll be colder,” Shea said.

Freezing temperatures will continue today into the evening, with today’s high around 0 to 5 degrees and the low around the negative teens later tonight, according to Shea. A wind chill advisory was posted Monday morning, as temps were expected to drop to minus 20 to minus 30 degrees.

Austin Public Schools and Pacelli Catholic Schools were delayed two hours today because of the weather conditions.

Temperatures are expected to stay in the 10s and 20s throughout the week, with lows around 0 degrees.

Mower County residents may not be done with the snow yet, as a weak storm system is expected to move across the state Wednesday night, bringing one to two inches of snow if not a little more, Shea said.