Mainers were bracing Saturday night for a major winter storm that was expected to dump more than a foot of snow in higher elevations and significant accumulations elsewhere.

Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties should start seeing snow by 6 a.m., according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Tom Hawley.

The snow should last until early this evening before turning to sleet in Maine’s central region and in lower-lying areas, with accumulations totaling up to 10 inches. The sleet should turn back to snow later before winding down early Monday morning.

In the mountains, the precipitation should remain snow throughout the storm, blanketing peaks with up to 18 inches, Hawley said.

Lewiston-area temperatures shouldn’t climb above 28 degrees, he said

Coastal areas could see some freezing rain this evening if a large enough warm mass moves over the lower cold front.

“It looks like a true-blue nor’easter,” said Joseph Hewitt, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Caribou.

Accompanying the storm will be strong winds, which could gust upward of 45 mph along the coast in New Hampshire and Maine.

Also, freezing rain and sleet are expected to add to the misery in southern and coastal regions.

Local police and public works departments in the Twin Cities imposed winter parking bans this weekend ahead of the storm.

In Auburn, a citywide ban will be in effect from 7 a.m. today to noon on Monday.

In Lewiston, vehicles may not be parked on city streets until midnight Monday.

Earlier in the weekend, as much as a foot of snow fell from the Plains across the Midwest on Saturday as the second big winter storm in a week barreled through on its way to New England.

Tens of thousands of people still lacked electricity after the first storm slammed Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri earlier in the week. That storm was blamed for at least 38 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents.

Residents of northern New England added salt, snow shovels and scrapers to their holiday shopping lists Saturday as the region awaited the latest snowstorm, a nor’easter expected to be the biggest blast so far this season.

Winter storm warnings and watches were posted from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont westward to Michigan and southward to Missouri.

The snow was expected to arrive in northern New England after midnight as a winter storm that pummeled the Midwest combines with moist air over the ocean.

The powerful storm threatened to disrupt transportation and holiday shopping across the region, with up to 14 inches of snow in western Maine and northern New Hampshire, and up to 18 inches of snow across parts of Vermont.

The American Red Cross warned residents to be prepared with extra blankets, warm clothing, first aid kits, necessary medications, flashlights, water, canned food, a battery-powered radio and extra batteries in each home.

For northern New Englanders, the weather represents a big departure from the last two seasons, when some residents were still trying to grab a few rounds of golf in December and ski areas were bemoaning the lack of snow.

As of Saturday, Portland was 9 inches ahead of normal with 13.7 inches of snow; Concord, N.H., was 8.9 above normal with 13.8 inches; and Burlington, Vt., was 10 inches ahead of normal with 16.2 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Winter storm warnings and watches extended Saturday from Missouri across parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, the National Weather Service said. As much as 15 inches of snow was forecast in parts of southern Michigan, with 10 inches possible in Detroit.

Snow started falling early in the afternoon in Pittsburgh, accumulating to about an inch before tapering off. Light rain and freezing rain took over later.

“We’ll have little bit of everything before the night is over,” said Bill Drzal, a Weather Service meteorologist in Pittsburgh.

Areas to the north and east of the city could see as much as 12 inches through Sunday night, according to the Weather Service.

More than 200 flights were canceled because of the weather Saturday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest, and all other flights were delayed an hour, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham. The problem was limited visibility in the falling snow, said United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

Residents across New England packed stores to stock up before getting slammed. The winter weather earlier in the week caught many people unawares, stranding commuters and school buses as it made some of the nation’s busiest highways impassable.

Concern about the approaching storm also led the University of Connecticut to cancel Sunday’s winter commencement ceremony. About 850 undergraduates had expected to receive diplomas Sunday, but school spokesman Richard Veilleux said officials were concerned about the safety of the students and their families and other guests on slippery roads.

Freezing rain was the culprit in the Plains earlier in the week, coating streets, windshields, tree limbs and power lines with ice as thick as an inch in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Oklahoma, hardest hit by the earlier storm, got only cold, light rain early Saturday, turning to snow during the morning. One to 3 inches of snow was forecast.

Neighboring Kansas, however, had as much as a foot of snow Saturday morning, and the Highway Patrol reported Interstate 70 in central Kansas was snowpacked.

“We’ve had no fatalities or pileups, but we have numerous slideoffs,” said Mary Beth Anderson, a patrol dispatcher. “I don’t think there are a lot of travelers, just the ones who have to get out and go to work.”

More than 2,300 people were in Kansas shelters Saturday because of the power failures and the fresh snow, said Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the state Adjutant General’s Department.

“We just opened the National Guard Armory in Russell because of the amount of people needing shelter,” Watson said. “I think they’re mostly travelers because of the highway conditions there.”

At the height of the last storm, a million customers in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri were blacked out.

By Saturday morning, Oklahoma utilities said about 181,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity. Some 62,000 were still blacked out in Kansas, and Missouri utilities reported about 27,000 customers still off line.

Officials in Oklahoma had worried the new snow could hamper power restoration efforts, but it turned out not to be a problem.

“The first several days, crews were working on emergency restoration and getting the backbone of the structure up – the main feeders and transmission lines,” said Stan Whiteford, a spokesman for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. “Now they’re really getting into the neighborhoods. The customers are coming on in bigger chunks.”

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Staff writer Christopher Williams and The Associated Press contributed to this report.