It was gray in Washington on Saturday and it rained early in the morning and then at night, but for hours in between thousands of people stayed dry. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)

On a relentlessly gray day, a day on which rain fell, what may have been surprising in Washington on Saturday was how much went on anyway and how many people gathered outdoors unimpeded by the elements.

In the city, it rained in the morning, but nothing indicated that any rain fell as thousands joined in an hours-long prayer march on the Mall.

Nor did raindrops appear to descend on dignitaries assembled in the White House Rose Garden for the 5 p.m. announcement of a Supreme Court nominee.

Reportedly some rain fell at Nationals Park during the late innings of the second game of an afternoon/night baseball doubleheader between the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets. But no fans were allowed into the stands, and therefore none got wet.

In the morning, between midnight and 6 a.m., before the day’s main events, almost a quarter of an inch of rain fell, in a sort of demonstration of the possibility of peaceful coexistence between nature and human activity. ( At night, between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., only a slight additional amount of rain, about four one-hundredths of an inch, was reported by the National Weather Service.)