COEUR d'ALENE - It wasn't that Chris Henry had put off buying a snow shovel.

He had never done it before.

"It's an all new experience," said Henry, newly transitioned to Coeur d'Alene from American Samoa for work, as he perused the snow shovel aisle of Ace Hardware.

The blankets of snow in the past few days have been a bit of shock, he acknowledged.

"We didn't get snow at all," Henry said of his South Pacific home. "It was sunny all year long."

And now this.

But it was clear enough where he and his wife, Sheila, had to start on Thursday.

"Just looking for a shovel to clear the walkway," he said.

Them, and everyone else in town.

With winter suddenly showing off how quickly it can bury cars and driveways, hardware and retail stores in Coeur d'Alene are seeing customers flock to their doors for new shovels and other snow-battling gear.

"The colder it gets, the busier we get. The worse the conditions, the better we do," said Lawrence Burt, manager at Ace Hardware. "People have to come to us to get the things that get them going at home."

In the past few days, the store has sold about 30 shovels and 100 bags of traction sand, Burt estimated.

Windshield scrapers and ice melt are going fast, too.

The store even sold a snow blower, he said, though he doesn't expect many more to roll out the door yet.

"We've got to wait for the snow to get a little higher before people spend an extra $300 or $400," he said.

Burt suspects a lot of folks were unprepared for the sudden inundation of white, he said, which explains the dash for basics now.

"It's kind of late in the (season)," he said. "A lot of people thought they were going to get through it."

With several inches falling every day since Tuesday, said Coeur d'Alene climatologist Cliff Harris, the city had tallied up 16.6 inches of snow by 3 p.m. on Thursday.

"It's settled out a little bit, there's about 13 inches on the ground now," he said, adding that he measures the snow every four hours, six times a day.

The whole region has been getting buried.

Hayden has seen the most white stuff over the week, Harris said, with more than 20 inches accumulated. Athol had added up 19 inches by Thursday afternoon, he said. Sandpoint was also up to 16 inches.

Areas at elevations between 2,500 to 3,000 feet have received 2 to 3 feet of snow, Harris added.

"And it's not done yet," he said.

More snow is expected today, Harris said, and snow or rain is slated for Saturday.

Lewis-Clark State College as well as North Idaho College canceled evening classes on Thursday on account of hazardous driving conditions.

Idaho State Police reported responding to several slide-off crashes on Thursday, and the Washington State Department of Transportation closed a section of westbound I-90 between Ellensburg and Easton due to a multi-car collision.

Drivers are advised to use extreme caution and take their time.

Harris noted that the first half of January had been the most snow-less on record, with only eight-tenths of an inch of powder through the 16th. That beat the record low of 1.2 inches of snow in that time span in 1944.

No more.

"This may not be the snow of the century, but it's at least the snow of 2012," Harris said.

At Target, snow shovels and ice melt are "going out as fast as we can get it in," said Manager Greg Foley.

He isn't surprised that folks don't seem that well stocked for heavy snowfall.

"I think people like me, they feel like they have it, but it's old and worn out," Foley said. "I've had a snow shovel for awhile, but it's getting tired, and with all the fresh snow coming down, you realize, 'Man, this piece of equipment I've been using isn't the best anymore.'"

Customers tend to stock up on coats, jackets and boots while they're dropping in for shovels, he added, which is keeping the cashiers busy.

"It's great news for Target when we see this kind of stuff. Other categories are slowing down, people aren't buying as many swim suits when it's snowing, but snow gear, the timing is good for us," he said.

Folks are loading up on sand bags at Home Depot, said store manager Mark Cooper, and ice melt "has been flying out."

There has been a big grab for snow shovels, too, he said, which he can understand.

"A lot of them get broke," he pointed out.

Even with these items popular, he noted that the demand is "nothing like years past," which he attributes to the nearing end of the season.

Not everyone was spending to fight the drifts on Thursday.

North Idaho College students Riley Martin, Nate Baldwin and Steven Junkermier breezed past the snow shovels in Ace on Fourth and headed straight for the sleds.

"We're having fun," Junkermier said. "It's the first snowfall of the season."