Along the coast, the winds are gusting, rain is creating big puddles, and area fire departments are busy responding to trees on wires, or just wires plain falling down onto roads.

As wind gusts began building into late afternoon, a slew of calls came in. Washington Fire Department tended to trees down across roads and Union had a tree down across Route 17. A large tree was down across the road at the intersection of Hatchet Mountain and Camden roads, in Hope, and blocking traffic, while Rockport firefighters tended to a wire that came down in Rockport Village near the Opera House.

In St. George, a tree was on fire on Spruce Head Road. South Thomaston helped respond with that tree because St. George was tending to an electrical incident at a home where a generator had been fired up and resulted in a wire spark. In Warren, a tree was down on a wire, and on fire. Same thing in Owls Head. In Waldoboro, a tree fell across a road, resulting in one car pushing the tree into another car. And in Waldo, firefighters there were called where something was reported to be in the road.

Central Maine Power is reporting 599 homes without power in Knox County and 186 homes in Waldo County. Outages in Knox are reported in Friendship, Hope, Owls Head, Rockport, South Thomaston, St. George, Union and Warren. In Waldo County, the outages are reported in Jackson, Liberty, Lincolnville, Montville, Northport and Searsmont.

Cumberland and York counties is getting socked, and outages there now number 14,850 and 12,946, respectively.

The National Weather Service continues to call for a high wind warning through coastal Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties as a strong storm system moves through the northeast tonight. Strong east and southeast winds will blow through the evening, with gusts up to 60 miles per hour.

"Strong winds may snap trees and branches and blow away loose objects," the weather service said.

7-DAY FORECAST

• Tonight Rain, mainly before 11 p.m. The rain could be heavy at times. Low around 38. Windy, with a southeast wind 21 to 31 mph becoming south 10 to 20 mph in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
  
  
• Saturday A 50 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 43. South wind 7 to 10 mph. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
  
  
• Saturday Night A chance of rain and snow showers before 9pm, then a slight chance of snow showers between 9pm and 11pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 24. West wind 8 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
  
  
• Sunday Sunny, with a high near 30. Breezy, with a west wind 17 to 20 mph.
  
  
• Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 19. West wind 11 to 16 mph.
  
  
• Monday Sunny, with a high near 28.
  
  
• Monday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 19.
  
  
• Christmas Day Mostly sunny, with a high near 34.
  
  
• Tuesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 17.
  
  
• Wednesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 29.
  
  
• Wednesday Night A 40 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 22. Blustery.
  
  
• Thursday A 40 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 27. Blustery.
  
  
• Thursday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16. Blustery.
  
  
• Friday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 27. Blustery.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@PenBayPilot.com; 706-6657/