Rains Over; Cool Nights to Continue : Weather: Citrus and strawberry growers have lost much of their crops.

The worst of the wet and rainy weather that pounded Orange County over the weekend is gone, but forecasters warned Monday that chilly evening temperatures will continue during the next few days.

“We’re sort of at the base of the roller coaster and starting to go back up,” said Bill Hibbert, a meteorologist at WeatherData, a private firm that provides forecasts for The Times. “But as far as in the long term, there are no more storms headed this way right away.”

Hibbert said the cloud cover left over from heavy rains Sunday had a beneficial effect--it held in what little heat there was, keeping overnight temperatures in the mid-30s to low 40s.

Daytime temperatures are expected to climb slowly into the 60s and may get to near 70 by the weekend, Hibbert said. But with no cloud cover forecast for the remainder of the week, brisk overnight lows are expected, he said.

“The nights are still going to be rather cool because skies will be clear, so there won’t be anything to hold in the heat from the day before,” Hibbert said. “I don’t think it will be as cool as the past couple of nights, but it’ll still be sweater and scarf weather for the morning drive.”

The overnight temperatures will be closely monitored by citrus growers, many of whom lost significant portions--perhaps as much as 20%--of their crops when lows plummeted into the 20s at the start of the weekend.

Dominick Etchebarria, a salesman for Magarro Farms in Irvine, said that nearly all of the strawberry crop in the current four-week growth cycle was lost to the cold weather and heavy rains over the weekend.

“Seventy-five percent of what we had out there Thursday morning was damaged by the cold,” Etchebarria said. “Whatever was left was washed away by the rain. For the next two to three weeks, production is going to be pretty minimal.”

He added that the loss could amount to 15% to 20% of the firm’s crop for the entire year.

“It’s significant dollars, let me tell you,” Etchebarria said. “Just think of what it would be like to lose 15 to 20% of your salary for the year.”

While growers have mostly written off the latest crop as an irreparable loss, the concern now is that continued low temperatures will affect new plantings of strawberries and other sensitive fruit.

“It wasn’t too bad (Sunday) night,” said Dick Miller, an employee at Murai Farms in Irvine. “It only got down to around 32. But who knows what the rest of the week will bring?”

Orange County Agriculture Commissioner James Harnett said Monday that temperatures would have to drop below 28 degrees to cause significant damage to citrus fruits. Weather forecasts call for temperatures to drop to about the freezing mark in the inland valleys, but most of lows in most of Orange County are not expected to dip below the upper 30s, Hibbert said.

The weekend’s cold and rain also caused problems for power companies. Weather-related incidents resulted in power outages to about 900 customers throughout the county.

In Costa Mesa, 800 customers living in an area bounded by 19th Street, 22nd Street, Newport Boulevard and Irvine Avenue lost electricity from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday, said Jim Kennedy, an area manager for Southern California Edison Co.

The power failure was caused by damage to underground equipment, but it was not immediately clear if the outage was weather-related.

“It’s hard to tell,” Kennedy said. “Lots of time, the underground areas will fill with water during a heavy rain.”

On Sunday, storm damage to power poles and a transformer cut electricity to about 100 customers in a Santa Ana neighborhood bounded by McFadden Avenue, Kilson Drive and Oak Street, said Tony Aguilar, an Edison area manager. Power was out for most of the homes from 4:40 to 5:05 p.m., but three homes remained out until midnight, he said.

Times staff writer Wendy Paulson contributed to this report.

Mixed RESULTS: Southland storm brought too much snow to resorts, not enough rain to curb drought. B7