If nothing else, Winter Storm Fortis seemed to mark that point in winter where average Mainers are no longer overwhelmed by the weather – even as the storm continued to bear down Thursday night, some Mainers were taking a shrugging approach to cold, wind and snow.

“It’s December,” Mitchell Clyde Thomas of Durham said. “It’s Maine.”

“I think: if you live in Maine, there is no need to frantically rush to the grocery store every time the word ‘snow’ is thrown around,” Chelsea J. LaBelle of Lisbon said. “When was the last time we were trapped in our homes and ran out of food, then starved? We have shovels, plows, enough food in our pantries, I’m sure, to get by for a few days.”

The ski areas were downright giddy.

“The snow is falling thick, fast and fluffy,” raved the early evening mountain report at Sunday River. “Forecasts were right on point. Flurries started just before noon, and the snow has already built up along with current snowfall rates. We remain in the radar bull’s-eye and are still on track for anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of total accumulation by tomorrow. If there was any day to set that early alarm and get to the mountain for first chair, Friday, Dec. 30 is that day.”

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Gray said early Thursday night that it was hard to predict snowfall amounts because a band of warm air was changing snow to rain in some areas.

“The biggest source of uncertainty with this snowstorm is where the rain/snow line will be and where it will move over time,” the NWS wrote at about 4 p.m.

Up to 16 inches were expected to fall in the mountains, while forecasts called from 3 to 8 inches in other areas.

By 10 p.m., nearly 7 inches of snow had been recorded in Lewiston, while as much 10 inches were recorded in parts of Oxford County. 

Winds were expected to pick up as the storm raged on overnight, although by 8 p.m. only 1,533 Central Maine Power customers were in the dark. Of that number, 992 were in Cumberland County, 453 in Lincoln County and 88 in Waldo County.

Even so, CMP said it had extra crews ready to roll if high winds and heavy, wet snow were to bring down power lines as the storm continued.

“CMP’s storm readiness teams have been holding planning meetings, and the company is pre-positioning personnel and equipment to ensure that adequate resources are in place to restore power outages that might occur as a result of the storm,” according to a CMP news release. “If needed, the company can also call on resources from the other AVANGRID energy companies in Connecticut and New York, as well as contractors and regional mutual assistance partners. The company is also coordinating its preparations with the Maine Emergency Management Agency and county emergency management personnel.”

For a while, it appeared that the storm might fizzle altogether.

It was snowing by midday Thursday, but only a little. Most areas across the region reported only a dusting, with an inch recorded across the Twin Cities area and even less in Oxford County.

Then Winter Storm Fortis got serious.

Shortly before nightfall, the snow started falling heavy and visibility became an issue on area roads. The streets were slick as city plows attempted to catch up with the storm.

Area police departments reported few car wrecks and other problems, likely because with days of advanced notice, most people stayed off the roads.

At about 7 p.m., Lewiston fire and rescue crews were sent to the Maine Turnpike, near Exit 80, for a reported crash. A woman complained of back pain in the wreck, but her injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Winter storm warnings remained in effect until Friday morning, as did police parking bans in most cities and towns.

In spite of three days of warnings and dire predictions, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. In Lewiston, a pair of young men were playing street hockey on a stretch of road connecting Pine and Webster streets. A few kids with sleds in tow roamed in the area of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, searching for suitable hills to slide down.

It is, after all, winter in Maine.