By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

It didn't last long, but it caused plenty of trouble.

Austin shut down — and hunkered down — on the third day of an Arctic blast after a layer of freezing rain coated streets and highways. Up to 2 inches of snow followed Friday, blanketing the region.

The conditions brought the area to a crawl, leading schools to cancel and businesses to shutter and causing hundreds of wrecks as motorists ventured onto streets that in places resembled ice-skating rinks.

But by late afternoon Friday, most of the snow and ice had melted. Temperatures warmed to 40 degrees, and forecasters predict that they will rise to near 60 today — the most balmy since a strong cold front swept through the area Tuesday and plunged temperatures into the teens and 20s.

Although authorities deemed most of the more than 300 crashes in Austin minor, a North Texas teenager was killed late Thursday near Pflugerville in a collision that injured three other teens.

Hospital officials treated crash victims and people who had slipped and fallen. St. David's Medical Center reported that it had tended to two people for hypothermia.