Grim and gloomy, drab and dreary. Pick your favorite adjective because dismal rain and cold winds are expected to be around for another day, at least.

In the early evening Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued storm warnings for Kennebec County and some coastal towns. Powerful thunderstorms were expected to rock those areas with high winds and pea-sized hail.

There was to be no such drama in the tri-county area; just an all-day rain that never let up and gusting winds that made walking miserable.

By nightfall, 2 inches of rain had fallen across the area, according to the weather service, and another 2 inches were expected before the storm winds down Thursday.

“There is little way around it,” the National Weather Service office in Gray posted in its online weather summary. “It’s going to be an ugly couple of days. Temperatures will be cool with a raw, northeasterly wind.”

In the Lewiston-Auburn area, there were scattered reports of lines down, but few problems beyond that. Mostly it was just unpleasant, with winds reported blowing at up to 30 mph and gusts up to 45 mph in coastal areas.

Where there is wind, there are downed tree limbs and power lines falling with them. By 7 p.m., just over 1,500 Central Maine Power customers were without electricity in Oxford County. A similar number was reported in Kennebec County while Androscoggin County saw 250 outages.

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