After a nice 10-day hiatus from the zany weather of this season, the jet stream has found its way back to the Pacific Northwest, bringing a return to our stormy pattern that we know and love from November.

A strong storm rolled through the Northwest Monday with a round of heavy rain, a big dose of mountain snow, and strong, gusty winds.

It was the winds that was the calling card of this storm, with gusts as high as 70-90 mph along the coast, and 45-60 mph in the western Washington interior.

The wind was knocking over trees and power lines across the area. Power outages were reported in the Westport/Grayland area, spots of Seattle (about 5,400 Seattle City Light customers) and in Mukilteo (3,500 Snohomish PUD customers in the dark.) In all, about 11,000 homes and businesses were without power across the area.

A tree toppled over onto power lines on Lake Ballinger Way (SR-104) near the Nile Temple Golf Course, blocking the road, and wind gusts as high as 70 mph forced DOT crews to close the Hood Canal Bridge for several hours Monday afternoon and evening.

On Bellingham Bay, a kayaker who called for help with a hand-held radio was lifted to safety. Two of his friends made it to shore on their own, and the Coast Guard said in a statement that a civilian boat and a tugboat helped the helicopter locate and rescue a fourth kayaker.

The kayakers were not identified.

Here's the peak gusts from this storm.:

• Tatoosh Island: 91 mph
• Westport: 83 mph
• Sekiu: 75 mph
• Ozette (Clallam County): 70 mph
• Hood Canal Bridge area: 70 mph (DOT Estimate)
• Clallam Bay: 70-80 mph (estimate)
• Ocean Shores: 65 mph
• Bellingham: 63 mph
• Alki Beach (W. Seattle): 62 mph
• Oak Harbor: 61 mph
• Agate Bay (Whatcom Co.) 59 mph
• Hoquiam: 58 mph
• Forks: 55 mph
• La Conner: 54 mph
• Sequim: 51 mph
• Anacortes: 50 mph
• Friday Harbor: 48 mph
• Seattle - 520 Bridge Midspan: 47 mph
• Shelton: 44 mph
• Everett: 43 mph
• Seattle (Boeing Field): 40 mph
• Tacoma: 39 mph
• Olympia: 36 mph

The coast got the brunt of the storm. In Ocean Shores, the power of the wind sent waves crashing into the jetty and the protective rock wall in front of the homes and condos along the south tip of Ocean Shores.

"It's kind of exciting," says Ocean Shores resident Muriah Derhaag. "We know the wind is coming and you 'storm watch', that's what you do in the wintertime down here. It's just incredible to see the power of the waves."

But while she's enjoying storm watching, part of her roof is getting ready to blow off and part of her fencing is blowing away.

Residents here just see this as part of the deal when you live on the coast.

"Oh, I've seen it before," said Ocean Shores resident Jim Maloney. "It's nothing new to me. I've lived down here since '98 and it's not the worse one we've had."

Though most trees stood their ground against the strong winds a few succumbed and that caused problems for Grays Harbor Public Utilities. Downed power lines put folks in the dark in Westport and Grayland to the south for about an hour.

But folks here say anything that would blow away has already blown away in other windstorms.

"It's just a gentle breeze so far," said Westport resident Ed Doss. We asked: "83 mph gust is just a gentle breeze?" "That's about right," he replied. "We've seen it stronger, much stronger."

The rain and wind will gradually taper off overnight, but the wind will still remain gusty at times.

More Wind On The Way

We'll get a bit of a break Tuesday with just scattered showers, but more we have two more windstorms coming in later this week. The first one is due in late Tuesday night into Wednesday. This one is expected to be a notch below the one from today, but still pretty gusty.

A third windstorm is expected late Thursday into Friday morning, and this one has the potential to be the strongest of the three, so it will bear watching. Keep in touch with the KOMO Weather Center for the full forecast.