It wasn’t so much a lion’s roar as a snarl.

But March did make its entrance in a notable way: dumping about 9 inches of snow in what has become for some the weariest winter in recent memory.

“We can’t seem to catch a break,” said Eric Sinsabaugh, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray. “We’re still in a very active pattern, with several more storms expected for early next week.”

Ugh.

Saturday’s storm brought the season’s total to 121 inches, still a ways off from a record high of 144.9 inches set in 1971. But road crews were scraping the bottom of the salt barrels, trying to keep pace with this winter’s relentless snowfall.

“This is our 22nd plowable snowstorm,” said Jon Elie, operations manager at Lewiston Public Works. “We’re almost brainwashed at this point; we know what we have to do and we just do it.”

Luckily a load of salt arrived from New Hampshire in time to replenish the dwindling supply at Lewiston and Auburn’s salt sheds. Elie said his crew goes through between 300 and 375 tons per storm.

“We got a few tractor-trailer loads so we got through this one, but that’s it,” he said. More deliveries are expected soon.

The forecast for up to a foot of new snow was enough to postpone high school basketball and hockey state championships Saturday, but not enough to derail democracy. Town meetings scheduled throughout Western and Central Maine went on as planned.

Ninety-three hardy souls proved the point in Minot where a suggestion to postpone future town meetings until spring went nowhere.

“Even with today’s bad weather, we had a great turnout,” Selectman Dean Campbell said. Longtime Selectman Eda Tripp said she thought town meeting had only been postponed once in the town’s history.

The snowfall, which had been expected to continue through the evening, was winding down by late afternoon, leaving a new blanket of the white stuff in Central Maine. Police reported several small fender-benders and parking complaints, but no serious accidents.

Snow was expected to continue falling through the night in the mountains.

At 4 p.m., Lewiston and Auburn measured 8 inches of snow; in Rangeley it was 4.

“It started snowing there later,” meteorologist Sinsabaugh said. “I expect it will continue snowing there ’til later as well.”

He said lingering moisture in the air and northwest winds will cause snow to continue falling over the mountains. The coastal areas of the state saw much less accumulation than the interiors as snow changed to rain by midday.

Luckily there’s a brief respite in the forecast. Today’s skies should be sunny with temperatures in the high 30s.

But they will darken again as a new storm system moves in Monday, bringing with it a forecast of rain, snow or freezing rain for Tuesday night. More of the same is expected through Wednesday.

Sinsabaugh declined to predict whether March will go out like a lamb. But he hopes so.

“My girlfriend is calling my snowblower ‘the other woman,’ ” he quipped.