SEATTLE -- We're in the heart of winter, yet it seems our area has been relatively ignored by Mother Nature over the past few weeks.

Sunday night, it's a reacquaintance as a strong storm promises gusty and possibly damaging wind gusts to some spots around the region.

A High Wind Warning is in effect from midnight through 10 a.m. Monday morning for the coast, western edge of the Strait of Juan de Fuca (Neah Bay, Forks, Clallam Bay, Sekiu) and the Northwest Interior for sustained winds of 40 mph, gusting as high as 60-65 mph.

The warning is also effect for the Olympics, where gusts on the ridgetops could reach 80-100 mph. (Hurricane Ridge had some gusts over 100 mph last week and that looks to be the case again.)

In addition, the greater Everett area has a lesser Wind Advisory for the same time frame for gusts to 45 mph, especially near the water.

The rest of the Puget Sound area will be largely protected by the Olympic Mountains and the fact that this storm's center is staying well offshore and winds are expected to remain below 40 mph.

All winds are expected to decrease as we get into late Monday morning.

Minor tidal flooding possible too

In addition to the wind, areas right along Puget Sound and the Northern inland waters could see some minor tidal flooding Monday morning in the few hours before and after the roughly 7 a.m. high tide.

Higher than usual tides are combining with the lower pressure of the approaching storm to perhaps bring water levels a few inches over the minimum level where we typically see minor flooding problems.

It could also be an issue with Tuesday and Wednesday morning's high tides, which are expected to be a little lower but forecast models indicate weather conditions could still make for water levels to cause some minor problems.

We dodged a bullet -- four to be exact

Sunday night's storm is the first of four very strong storms to pass through our general neighborhood, but the way the pattern is set up, we're getting off a lot easier than we could have been.

A very deep area of low pressure out in the eastern Pacific Ocean is twirling other storms around it, but the flow is such that these storms are staying offshore, flowing from almost due south to north several miles off the Washington Coast then weakening and gradually making landfall way off the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

This first one is close enough to bring strong winds to the coast and north interior where winds can funnel out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but the interior locations of Puget Sound are protected by the Olympic Mountains (which act as a wall between the storm) and the fact that these storm centers are not really crossing inland to our due north.

The three subsequent storms are either forecast to remain even farther offshore or be weaker by the time they make it up here. In addition, the main jet stream is expected to continue to drift farther south into California (Here comes your El Nino winter, California) sending most of the storms' energy there and keeping us just in a lighter showery pattern with just those storms weaker remnants.

Bottom line, a stormy week for parts of the Pacific Coast, but Seattle will sit mainly on the sidelines.