PORTLAND (AP) – The new year kicked off the way the old year ended – with more snow.

A new storm moved into northern New England on Tuesday with people still digging out from Monday’s storm that dumped more than a foot of snow across parts of the region.

Forecasters were expecting the storm to last into Wednesday and leave behind up to 18 inches of snow in parts of Maine and New Hampshire, and up to a foot in Vermont.

In Lewiston and Auburn, the storm contributed to several accidents, but fewer than normal for a major storm, and no serious injuries resulted.

“It seems as though people have decided to stay home rather than try to drive,” Lewiston police Lt. James Minkowsky said Tuesday night. “The roads are pretty messy.”

Statewide, holiday traffic seemed far less than a typical Tuesday, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Local drivers might be wishing today that they’d parked in wiser spots. Both Lewiston and Auburn reported that they’d begun towing cars to make room for snow plows.

In Lewiston, an emergency parking ban was scheduled to last until 3 p.m. today. In Auburn, the ban was to extend until 6 p.m.

Off-road traffic seemed calm, too.

Statewide, there were no major snowmobiling mishaps Tuesday, said Deborah Turcotte, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“There were a lot of people ice fishing and lots of fish being caught,” Turcotte said.

The latest storm came on the heels of a December to remember, when the region got more snow than it had in decades.

Monday’s snowfall brought December’s total for Concord, N.H., to 44.5 inches, breaking the old mark of 43 inches set in 1876. Portland got 38.8 inches for the month, making it the third-snowiest December on record and the snowiest since 1970. Burlington, Vt., got 45.7 inches, far above the 17.2-inch average for the month.

The deep snows have made for lots of shoveling, stretched municipal snowplowing budgets and put road salt in short supply. But it has also made for ideal winter sport conditions.

James Krams, 30, of Portland, has already gone snowboarding 13 times this season. People should get out and enjoy the snow rather than complain about it, he said.

“This is New England and not Florida. You bought snow tires for a reason,” said Krams, who moved to Maine from Long Island, N.Y., eight years ago. “I moved here for the mountains. It’s a winter paradise right now.”

The string of storms has put a fiscal pinch on towns and states as they go through their road sand and salt, and burn through their road-clearing budgets.

In New Hampshire, Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said the state spent about $1 million on overtime for plowing in the first three weeks of December, and has already spent $30 million of the $75 million budgeted for the entire winter.

“It’s definitely starting to take a toll on our budget,” he said.

But the snow is also a boon to the region’s businesses that rely on snow.

Ski resorts were enjoying the flurry of storms after last year’s lack of snow early in the season. Maine’s two biggest ski resorts, Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley and Sunday River in Newry, each got around 6 feet of snow last month.

Sunday River received 74 inches of snow in December, with measurable snow falling 17 days.

Sugarloaf got 70 inches for the month, with snow falling on 13 days.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Sugarloaf spokesman Bill Swain said. “It just keeps coming.”

At the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vt., which in the winter caters to families looking to enjoy the snow, the early – and continuing – storms are assuring a turn around from the brown December and early January of last season.

“It makes the world of a difference,” said the inn’s Karen Wilson who was busy Tuesday checking out some guests while preparing to welcome others. “This January will probably be a completely different scenario.”

Tuesday’s storm was causing travel problems, and the timing virtually assured that there would be a messy commute, travel disruptions and school cancellations on Wednesday.

Larry Dodge, a dispatcher for the Vermont Transportation Agency, said as the snow started to fall Tuesday that cars were skidding off Interstate 89 between the Canadian border and White River Junction.

But the plow drivers were rested and ready to push away the snow from the new storm. “This is going to be a long one,” Dodge said.

After the storm moves away, extreme cold will move into the region on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to moderate on Friday before reaching into the 30s for the weekend.

Sun Journal staff writer Dan Hartill contributed to this report.

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