It might not have lived up to its wintry billing, but Maryland's bout with snow, ice, drizzle and fog yesterday was enough to close schools, gouge highway maintenance budgets and send some motorists skidding into each other.

"It turned out to be less troublesome" than predicted, said David Fidler, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Bureau of Highways. But "it's going to be an expensive one."

Baltimore City said yesterday that it had spent $300,000 treating the streets and cleaning up after the storm.

Weather forecasters said the cold air was in place as predicted, but the storm didn't drop as much moisture on the region as computer programs suggested it would. That spared us significant icing.

"We were in a kind of a gap region," said Steve Zubrick, science and operations office for the National Weather Service's forecast office in Sterling, Va. "The bigger rainfall amounts were actually south of the Potomac River, and ... into Pennsylvania. We didn't get that."

Area hospitals reported no high numbers of storm-related slip-and-fall accidents. And there were no unusual power outages.

Morning traffic was light after schools canceled classes and many people heeded official advice to avoid unnecessary travel.

But there were some slick spots, and the morning rush hour was marred by accidents.

Just before 7 a.m., Baltimore police closed the southbound lanes of Russell Street between Annapolis Road and Bush Street, near M&T; Bank Stadium, after three cars collided and slid off the road. No injuries were reported. The road turns into Route 295 and is one of the main exit and entry points of the city.

Later in the morning, a salt truck under contract to the SHA ran through an intersection at West Street and Route 2 in Annapolis with its dumper raised. It snagged overhead wires and pulled them down.

Eight vehicles, including a Maryland State Police cruiser, were involved in a pileup on an Interstate 270 ramp near Gaithersburg. No one was injured, according to State Highway Administration spokesman Dave Buck.

The complex storm moved in overnight from the southwest and laid down a thin layer of snow before the precipitation turned to sleet and freezing rain.

But there wasn't enough precipitation to produce much icing - barely a third to an eighth of the rain that was falling to our north and south, Zubrick said.

"We also really warmed up aloft," he said. The rain that did fall was forming in layers more than 2,000 feet up, where temperatures were well above 40 degrees, making the drops less likely to freeze at the surface.

Interstates and main roads were well-salted and wet throughout the day, the result of salting and pre-treatments that began late Thursday night.

Baltimore County had 444 people on the job in 360 pieces of equipment.

"The road conditions were spotty ... a mixed bag early this morning," Fidler said yesterday. "There was snow in the north. Dundalk and Essex were just wet. I think everything was under control by 5 this morning."

The SHA had 1,900 people out in 1,700 pieces of equipment.

Before the latest storm, the SHA reported it had already blown through its $21 million winter storm budget, spending $35 million on this winter's storms.

"We've had 25 accumulating storms in Western Maryland," said the SHA's Dave Buck. "Keyser's Ridge [in Garrett County] has had 75 inches of snow. It's a different world, but it's still Maryland. People lose sight of that."

"A full third, if not more, of that budget is [spent] just out in far Western Maryland, where they fight snow from November to April," he said.

The snow fighters have also been burdened with sharply higher prices for road salt, and they're paying more for fuel and private contractors. "Everything is more expensive," Buck said.

More freezing rain was expected overnight, with areas of fog and lows near 30 degrees before daybreak today. The forecast called for clouds and rain showers today, with highs near 40 degrees. Tomorrow and Monday promised to be sunny, with seasonable highs in the 40s.

A new storm is due Tuesday, but it's expected to bring just rain.

frank.roylance@baltsun.com

Sun reporters Mary Gail Hare, Jennifer McMenamin, Arin Gencer and Nicole Fuller contributed to this article.