The Northeast’s first major winter storm brought a blustery surge of sleet and snow Friday, closing schools, clearing store shelves and making a mess on highways.

Forecasters said the system threatened to deliver an even heavier blow over the weekend, with up to 18 inches of snow forecast in parts of New England.

“We’re all set,” said Richard Christiano of Lexington, Mass. “I just bought 100 pounds of ice melt and we took out our snow shovels last night. We’ll be getting a good night’s sleep and getting ready for some shoveling.”

The National Weather Service said the complex storm system brought in snow and sleet, changing to rain in some places as temperatures warmed through the day. Along the mid-Atlantic coast, hit by the first round early Friday, a second wintry punch was expected to strike late in the day.

“We’re looking at a classic coastal storm, a nor’easter, if you will, that should move in around midnight and intensify as it moves up the Northeast corridor,” said meteorologist Barbara Watson.

“The further north you go, the more accumulation you’ll get, so that in parts of Maine, you could be measuring it in feet,” she said.

Forecasters in Massachusetts predicted up to 18 inches of snow through Sunday. Near-blizzard conditions were in the offing for parts of Maine and New Hampshire. In New Jersey, up to 14 inches of snow was forecast.

The storm had already brought a mixture of ice, freezing rain, sleet and snow in mountain regions of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia on Thursday. At least one death was blamed on the storm, that of a 23-year-old man who was killed in an accident on a slick road in Virginia.

Philadelphia drivers endured a sloppy rush-hour crawl Friday morning and braced for more snow on Saturday. The combination of snow, sleet and rain caused so many fender-benders in the city that a radio traffic reporter called it “a $500 deductible day.”

For New York City, the temperature hit the 32-degree freezing point as the first flakes descended on the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

Tana and Howard Graham, visiting the city from Jackson, Miss., said they hadn’t experienced any serious snow for a half-dozen years.

“We’re loving it,” Tana Graham said. “It’s putting us in the Christmas spirit.”