If you are a Thanksgiving traveler with a long way to drive, it’s a drag. If you happen to be running a ski resort?

Pure bliss.

“The snow is here!” trumpeted the mountain report at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re expecting 8 to 14 inches by tomorrow, meaning it’s almost time to gobble up some powder. The Chondola will be spinning, ropes will be dropping, and the snow guns will be on at full blast. With the most open terrain in Maine and New Hampshire, we have a lot to be thankful for!”

Not to be outdone, the people of Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley were doing plenty of screaming, as well.

“Winter has finally returned and the snowstorm we’ve been waiting for is currently producing some big, fat flakes,” according to its Wednesday report. “Activity in and around the Loaf today has been buzzing with excitement. On and off the hill, we saw plenty of smiles; it seems like we’re all more than ready for our first big pow day of the season. Tell grandma to throw an extra bird in the oven — you’re going to work up quite an appetite shredding freshies all morning.”

In most areas around central and western Maine, the storm began at noon. For the rest of the day, snow fell at rates of one to two inches per hour in some areas, slightly less in others. By nightfall, the world was white, with several inches of sloppy wet snow covering everything.

Turner reported 5 inches of snow by 6 p.m. Elsewhere around Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties, most cities and towns were looking at 4 inches and it was still coming down.

The National Weather Service, not known for mincing words, was warning of possible sleet and thunder in some areas, some of those things that make holiday travel extra challenging.

“Because of the expected intensity and accumulation of snow, driving will continue to be treacherous on one of the busiest travel days of the year,” went the warning on the NWS Watches and Warnings page late Wednesday afternoon. “Travel is not recommended tonight.”

With between six and 12 inches expected by Thanksgiving morning, most cities and towns were enacting overnight parking bans.

Otherwise? The usual. Cars slipping and sliding off roads just about everywhere. Low-speed collisions and rollover wrecks in Rumford and Wales. Cars in ditches or down embankments in Sabattus, Lewiston and Monmouth with no reports of serious injury. Cars sliding into utility poles in Auburn and car wrecks in store parking lots. A lot of slow-moving traffic and city plows thundering up and down the roadways.

And sputtering. Plenty of sputtering from people who prefer that the heavy snow hold off until Christmas.

“It’s way too early for this,” grumbled Gerard Dennison of New Auburn.

By 6 p.m., roughly 9,000 Central Maine Power customers were in the dark, although most were along the coast. Still, CMP had crews ready to roll in anticipation of wet, heavy snow bringing down power lines across the rest of the state.

Supermarkets across the Twin Cities were packed by early Wednesday evening as shoppers rushed to pick up last-minute items for the holiday or emergency supplies in case they get snowed in.

Tire centers were busy all day, as were towing companies.

The speed limit on the turnpike was lowered to 45 mph and was expected to stay there into Thursday morning. In Lewiston and surrounding towns, streets were slushy as the evening commute got underway. Although no official adjustment was made to the posted speed limit in those areas, traffic moved slowly as workers and travelers inched their way toward the holiday.