CHICAGO (AP) — It’s finally looking like winter in the Midwest as the season’s first big snowstorm crawls across the region, leaving skiers and snow-reliant businesses giddy but greeting morning commuters Friday with a sloppy, slippery drive.

After starting as one of the warmest and brownest winters in recent history, parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri were blanketed in white before the storm moved into Illinois and Michigan. Snowplow drivers were out in force overnight in Chicago, as six to eight inches of snow and plummeting temperatures moved in.

Nearly 15 inches was expected across parts of northern Indiana by mid-day, and residents in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were bracing for more than a foot before the storm continued its eastward roll through Ohio and into New England.

In a typical year, such a storm would hardly register in the Upper Midwest. But the atmospheric patterns, including the Pacific pattern known as La Nina, that have conspired to make this an unusually icy winter in Alaska have kept it abnormally warm in parts of the lower 48 states used to more snow.

For Steve Longo, a 47-year-old chiropractor from Wauwatosa, Wis., the wait to try out the cross country skis he got for Christmas was excruciating. He and friend Alex Ng, 56, wasted no time in hitting the trails at the Lapham Peak cross country ski area, about 25 miles west of Milwaukee.

“I wasn’t worried,” Longo said. “I was just anxious.”

“This is Wisconsin,” a confident Ng said. “There’s going to be snow.”

The storm left 2 to 6 inches of snow on eastern Iowa by Thursday evening, and was expected to drop 3 to 8 inches total on southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois as it moves further into the Northeast on Friday, according to Richard Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

While the dry weather has been an unexpected boon to many cash-strapped communities, which have saved big by not having to pay for plowing, salting and sanding their streets, it has hurt seasonable businesses that bank on the snow.

“If people don’t see it in their yards they are not likely to come out and ski and snowboard so this is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful for us,” Kim Engel, owner of Sunburst Ski area in Kewaskum in southeastern Wisconsin, said as she watched the snow come down out the window.

Rob Moser, a snowplow driver from Elkhart, Ind., said he couldn’t wait for the flakes to start falling. The weather service said lake effect snow could mean parts of Michigan and northern Indiana could get up to a foot.

“I love it. I make money plowing snow and I’m all about snowmobiling, so I love it,” Moser said. “We haven’t had enough snow to do much.”

The storm was an annoyance for most commuters, and authorities said it caused hundreds of traffic accidents and at least three road deaths — two in Iowa and one in Missouri. And while some lucky grade-schoolers cheered an unexpected day of sledding, hundreds of would-be air travelers had to scramble to come up with a Plan B.

More than 400 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Across town at Midway International Airport, more than 100 flights were canceled.

In New York state, the storm dumped up to 8 inches of snow on the southern Adirondack Mountains and forced scores of schools to cancel or delay the start of classes. Until Thursday’s storm, Albany had received only 6.5 inches of snow this winter, which is about 10 inches less than it normally gets, according to the weather service.

The ice and snow may have caused headaches for travelers, but 44-year-old Mike Norman, of Evanston, Ill., said the snow was long overdue. Norman co-founded Chicago Endurance Sports, which offers a Winter Warriors program to help runners stay committed to their training and teach them about the right gear for winter.

But because of the unseasonably warm weather — temperatures exceeded 50 degrees on Wednesday — the program hasn’t really geared up, he said.

“It’s one of my favorite times of year to run. It’s clean. It’s crisp. It’s quiet,” Norman said. “It’s fun to put footsteps in the fresh snow.”

Lisa Taylor, the director of the North American Vasa cross-country ski race near Traverse City, Mich., said the storm, which pushed into the area Thursday night, would help reinforce the thick base of snow on the rolling trails that they needed for races.

“There’s been a great feeling of confidence that we’d get some good snow,” Taylor said. “Up in the hilly areas where the trails are, there’s already more snow than you’d think.”

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Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Chris Carola in Albany, N.Y.; Caryn Rousseau in Chicago; Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind.; Carrie Schedler in Indianapolis; John Flesher in Traverse City, Mich.; Roger Schneider in Milwaukee; and Melanie Welte in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Motorists have reported a sharp-dressed pig running loose on a highway just outside of Pittsburgh. State troopers also spotted the animal but failed to catch it before it scurried off into the woods.

The pig is wearing a scarf. The sightings were reported between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday just west of the city on Interstate 376, known locally as the Parkway West.

State troopers from the nearby barracks in Findlay Township spotted the pig, but couldn’t catch up to it.

Police say the pig appeared to be a baby and confirmed it was wearing a scarf. Police don’t know why that is or who may own the animal.

LONDON (AP) — A private funeral service for Bee Gees star Robin Gibb will take place next week, with a public memorial service planned for later in the year.

In a statement issued Wednesday on behalf of Gibb’s family, his relatives confirmed that a service for “close family and friends” would take place on June 8.

No details about the location of the funeral have been disclosed.

The Gibb family requested that mourners offer donations, rather than flowers, to two children’s charities on the Isle of Man, where Gibb was born.

Gibb, a founder of the Bee Gees with his two late brothers, died on May 20 after a long battle with cancer at the age of 62.

Plans have not yet been confirmed for a planned public memorial service.

NEW YORK (AP) — Andie MacDowell will be a pioneer for the Hallmark Channel, starring in the network’s first prime-time series.

Hallmark said Wednesday that MacDowell will portray municipal court Judge Olivia Lockhart in “Cedar Grove.” It will start with a two-hour movie airing later this year and continue with a 13-episode series early in 2013.

The new series is based on books by author Debbie Macomber. Movie adaptations of Macomber’s books have been among the top-rated programs that Hallmark has shown over the past three years.

MacDowell’s movie credits include “sex, lies and videotape,” ”Groundhog Day” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A gauge of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes fell in April from nearly a two-year high in the previous month.

The decline was the biggest in a year. Still, sales are well ahead of last year’s level for the same month, suggesting the housing market is improving slowly.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its index of sales agreements dropped to 95.5, down from March’s reading of 101.1.

A reading of 100 is considered healthy. One year ago, the level was 83.5.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A massive wildfire in southwestern New Mexico’s Gila National Forest is now the largest fire in state history.

Fire officials said Wednesday the erratic fire has grown to more than 170,000 acres, surpassing a blaze last year that burned 156,593 acres in New Mexico and threatened the nation’s premier nuclear facility.

The Gila forest fire is also the largest currently burning in the country.

Fire information officer Jerry Perry says about 1,200 firefighters from around the state were in the isolated region to battle the growing blaze. He says they face low humidity and shifting winds in their firefighting efforts.

Perry says parts of southern New Mexico could expect to see smoke from the fire, which has destroyed a dozen homes.