HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Winter stubbornly held on to southern New England Wednesday night and Thursday morning as a storm blanketed the region with wet, heavy snow and landed this snow season into the history books four days into spring.

The National Weather Service predicted snowfall totals of 6 to 12 inches in northern Connecticut, northern Rhode Island and most of Massachusetts by the time the storm ended Thursday, which would put 2004-05 on the top 10 snow list in the past century. Shoreline areas were expected to get 3 to 5 inches.

“You could call it a bit on the unusual side to get this amount of snow this early in spring,” said Mike Jackson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. “But does it happen? Yes.”

Before Wednesday, 68.6 inches of snow had fallen on the region this season. The storm was expected to push this season past No. 10 on the all-time list, 70.6 inches in 1906-07, Jackson said. No. 9 on the list, 76 inches in 1955-56, was within reach.

The No. 1 snow season was 1995-96, when 115.2 inches of snow were recorded.

Connecticut gets an average of about 43 inches of snow a year. At this time last year, 45 inches had fallen.

Wednesday and Thursday’s storm was blamed on temperatures that, despite the putative start of spring, still dropped to below freezing at night. Had temperatures been higher as generally expected in late March, the snow would instead have been rain.

In addition, precipitation collided with dry air during the day, helping to push temperatures down, Jackson said. And a high pressure system to the north was “locking cold air in,” he said.

Police, utility and transportation officials were not reporting any major problems Wednesday night.

“There’s nothing really overwhelming,” said Sgt. J. Paul Vance, spokesman for the Connecticut state police. “A few scattered accidents, but really no significant road closures. We had enough warnings so people stayed off the roads.”

John Wallace, spokesman at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, said the airport was in “good shape” with little snow accumulation by 8:30 p.m.

Officials were hoping to move equipment in overnight to avoid delays this morning, he said.

Little overnight commercial airline activity and only some cargo flights were expected to make it easier for crews to clear runways, Wallace said.

Tom Daly, storm monitor at the state Department of Transportation, said all 632 state plows were dispatched at 4 p.m. Wednesday and were expected to be plowing, sanding and salting roads throughout the night and into Thursday morning.

Traffic was moving well Wednesday night, but Daly said Thursday morning commuters should proceed with caution.

“We’re treating it like any other storm throughout the winter,” he said.

Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Connecticut Light and Power, said that by 9 p.m., few problems with power lines were reported.

Still, “heavy, wet snow as well as wind always concern us,” he said.

By 9:30 p.m., 391 outages were reported, with most in Hebron.

CL&P serves more than 1 million customers in Connecticut.

Temperatures were expected to climb to the 40s Thursday, helping to melt some snow. But temperatures at night were expected to be low, slowing the disappearance of snow, Jackson said.

Is spring coming? “Eventually, yes,” he said.

AP-ES-03-23-05 2245EST