North Idaho was checkered with power outages throughout Monday, as rain, sleet and 40-mile-per-hour winds battered the region.

More than 500 Avista Utilities customers were in the dark in the Coeur d'Alene area alone. Roughly 15,000 had been affected by outages across the North Idaho/Eastern Washington region by early afternoon.

"The wind blows the trees and the trees tend to go into the lines and bring down the lines," explained spokesperson Sarah Richards on Monday afternoon, when 19 outages were reported. "The majority of our outages right now are that."

Kootenai Electric Cooperative also saw scattered weather-related outages throughout the day, affecting roughly 1,000 customers south of Coeur d'Alene and in the Plummer area.

"We have had a lot of damage from this storm," said spokesperson Erika Neff. "A broken pole, a lot of trees on lines."

Multiple crews for both utilities were out working all day to restore power.

"This happens on a yearly basis," Richards said. "We kind of anticipate these types of things."

The strongest gusts in Coeur d'Alene reached 44 miles per hour, said Coeur d'Alene climatologist Cliff Harris.

"I was out picking a whole bunch of branches in my yard," Harris said, adding that he expects the winds to die down today.

Coeur d'Alene picked up another .64 inches of precipitation by Monday afternoon, Harris added, pushing the year's total to 41.10 inches.

That means the year could surpass his predicted 42-inch total, he said.

"We've got another two weeks to go," Harris said. "We might be looking at 2012 as the wettest year for a long time to come."

With highs expected in the lower 30s for Coeur d'Alene in ensuing days, Harris forecasted more snow up through Christmas Eve.

"I've been getting calls, 'Is that our white Christmas that was melting today?'" Harris said. "I said, 'No. We've got more snow coming.'"

Surprisingly, fire districts didn't see much carnage from Monday's irascible weather.

Neither Coeur d'Alene Fire Department nor Northern Lakes Fire Protection District fielded any weather related calls by mid-afternoon, officials said.

"I'm sure about the time things start freezing, we'll be getting more calls," said Capt. Jeff Sells with Coeur d'Alene Fire.

Kootenai County Fire and Rescue had fielded but a handful of calls, all about downed power lines or "cable television lines that appeared to be power lines," said Division Chief Dan Ryan.

"It hasn't been anything serious," Ryan said, adding that he had been expecting uprooted trees with the wet ground. "Knock on wood."