LEWISTON – A fast-moving, intense snowstorm that crossed the area Thursday afternoon caused few problems for a population already hunkering down for winter.

By 8 p.m., roughly 3 inches of snow had fallen in the Twin Cities. But only 16 traffic crashes had been reported by mid-evening in the two cities.

“It was pretty sloppy out there during the commute,” said Lewiston police Sgt. David St. Pierre. “But the number of accidents was relatively low.”

Police in Auburn responded to a scattering of car wrecks, but reported it was mostly quiet as snow began to fall through the supper hour.

The calm in the streets was noticeably different than the chaos that followed the season’s first major storm.

In early December, when an unexpected storm dropped several inches on the area, more than five dozen car crashes were reported in the Twin Cities by nightfall.

In the same period on Thursday, police said there were cars off the road and a few minor collisions, but mostly, people had become accustomed to winter driving.

It was the same in other areas.

It’s snowing and the roads are slippery,” said a Franklin County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher about 6 p.m.

She said state Department of Transportation crews were out sanding and plowing highways. No serious accidents had been called into the Sheriff’s Office by that time.

In Oxford County the story was much the same.

“There’s snow on the ground,” a dispatcher offered.

She added that the snow hadn’t led to any accidents as of early evening.

A dispatcher at the state police barracks in Gray had another tale to tell.

“There are a lot of accidents,” she said, but they were confined to the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 95. None was serious.

The speed limit on the two highways had been reduced to 45 miles per hour, and state crews were busy sanding and plowing both routes.

In the hinterlands covered by state police, though, things were good.

“There’s nothing off the turnpike and 95,” the dispatcher said.

The snow was expected to taper off overnight.

Staff writer Doug Fletcher contributed to this story.