By the middle of the afternoon, it looked like the storm might fizzle. The snow started several times and stopped. The roads remained clear and the weather bearable.

Storm? What storm?

Shortly before 3 p.m., the snow started to fall for real: fat, wet flakes that stuck to the ground and began to accumulate, as promised. An hour later, it was snowing in earnest and the evening commute was a messy one.

Not that it was a problem for school buses. Classes just about everywhere had been canceled for the day, the announcements coming hours before the first glistening flake of snow had fallen.

Not everyone was a fan of the move.

“How about snow before we call off school?” one woman grumbled on Facebook.

There was a lot of grumbling. The storm had been hyped for days. Events were postponed and parking bans put into effect. It was starting to look like a classic overreaction.

By 4 p.m., though, it was clear another bona fide storm was upon us and the cancellations were beginning. You know the weather is getting bad when it affects the dinner menu: At 4 p.m., Marco’s Restaurant in Lewiston announced that its buffet was postponed.

“Mother Nature had other plans,” Marco’s wrote on its Facebook page.

The Weather Channel named this storm Rocky. Eighteen letters into the alphabet now, the tradition was starting to wear thin. Or it was still just dandy, depending on whom you were talking to.

“It’s branding,” said Joshua Shea of Lewiston Auburn Magazine. “I like it.”

“Think it’s stupid,” said Linda Doucette Scott of the Lewiston School Committee.

“Next they’ll be naming summer rainstorms,” said Sheila Cosgrove Rousseau of Auburn. “Or just a light sprinkle.”

Call it whatever you want, it comes down to the same thing. The snow was slushy and heavy and driving in it was perilous.

At about 4 p.m., a Subaru wagon occupied by a couple and a young child slid off the turnpike entrance in Lewiston and landed in a ditch. The occupants escaped without injury and a tow truck was called to haul the car out of the gully.

At about 5 p.m., a driver lost control while crossing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge in Auburn. That car slid off the roadway and struck a tree.

In Lewiston minutes later, four vehicles crashed at Scribner Boulevard and Webster Street. A woman was examined for back pain.

The police radio quieted soon as people got where they were going. But as darkness fell, the snow was piling up and there was no end in sight.

By 7 p.m., just over an inch had fallen across the Lewiston area. By 7:30 p.m., it had turned to rain. But in Oxford County, areas including West Otisfield were approaching 5 inches of fresh snow.

It was expected to continue overnight and into Thursday before tapering off. Temperatures were expected to remain above freezing, meaning some areas might see a sloppy mix of rain and snow before it was over.

The most incredible thing? No significant snow is forecast for the weekend.