Snow started falling before 6 a.m. Wednesday in the greater Franklin County region and slowly intensified. Before noon it fell at a rate of 1-inch an hour and weather observers predicted it would reach 2 inches per hour at the peak of the storm.

“We’re just a whisker over 7 inches,” said Dennis Pike of Farmington, a National Weather Service observer from that area at about 11:45 a.m.

“Remarkably it is following the forecast so far,” he said. That’s not always the case.

Eustis, by 7:30 p.m. had more than 20 inches on the ground.

Tim Hardy, the Franklin County Emergency Management director, was keeping tabs on potential emergencies and made sure assistance was ready to organize shelters if necessary.

Hardy said the National Weather Service was saying 16 to 24 inches of snow is expected, accompanied by high winds as the storm progressed through the afternoon and into Thursday.

Norm Haggan, Division 3 engineer based in Dixfield, said more than 100 Maine Department of Transportation employees in 59 plow trucks hit the highways from Greenville and Jackman to Paris at 6 a.m. They were to work through the night.

Sometimes, he said, some crew members take a couple of hours off during the middle of the night to get some rest, but he didn’t anticipate that happening Wednesday night.

Despite the snowfall, he said traffic has been light and people are staying home.

“There’s been relatively light activity on our 1,600 miles of road. There’s been no major problems. This is our first significant storm, and I’m really thankful that the traveling public is staying home,” he said.

Not only was the snow accumulating, but it was cold outside, weather observer Harold Souther of Livermore Falls said. It was only about 7 degrees just after noon.

“It’s too much for my liking but we’re getting it any way,” Souther said. It’s a real dry snow; it’s only 35 percent humidity and normally it’s 42 to 49 percent, he said.

Since December, 22.8 inches had fallen in Livermore, he said. If they added another 20 inches with this storm, it would be about normal for this time of year.

“I expect we would get over 60 inches for the winter,” Souther said. In a normal year, 72 to 74 inches of snow is average, he said.

Betty Wing of Eustis, another observer, said visibility was poor as she looked out toward Bigelow Mountain.

“It’s a fine snow so it’s taking more to accumulate than it would if it were big flakes,” Wing said. “If the wind comes up, watch out – we’re going to get drifts.”

Winds could also lead to trees falling and power outages.

By midafternoon, Rangeley had 10 to 12 new inches of snow, weather observer Frenchie Guevremont said.

“It’s a Maine snow day, and it’s a good thing because our economy revolves around snow in the winter time,” Guevremont said. Those who plow snow, waitresses and others who have been out of work from a lack of customers due to the limited snowfall would be back to work and snowmobilers would be out on the trails and stopping in town now, Guevremont said.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Detective Tom White said people seemed to be staying off the roads. Few accidents were reported, with most of those just being vehicles sliding off the roads.

Not everybody saw the snow as a problem. Griffin Couture, 18, of Jay, was happy to see the snow.

“I’m liking it, definitely,” Couture said. “We just haven’t had a big storm like this in close to three years I’m really glad we’re finally getting it.”

Staff writer Eileen Adams contributed to this report.