COUNTYWIDE : Cold to Continue Through Weekend

The cold snap will continue in Ventura County over the weekend, although winds have died down, meteorologists say.

Temperatures were expected to dip below freezing Thursday night and in some areas plunge into the upper 20s, said meteorologist Steve Burback. Nighttime temperatures will hover near freezing throughout the weekend, Burback said.

Winds that blew up to 40 m.p.h. Wednesday seemed to have lost strength, Burback said. Gusts reached 25 m.p.h. Thursday, and Burback forecast light winds for the weekend.

In the midst of the cold snap, the Moorpark area was without power for more than two hours Thursday, Southern California Edison officials said. The outage began at 1:59 p.m., and power was restored at 4:16 p.m., said Christina Bradley, an area manager.

“We believe it was the wind, although we are not sure. But we saw no evidence of any other cause,” she said.

To escape the cold, about 62 homeless people gathered Thursday evening at the National Guard Armory in Oxnard, which was open for the eighth consecutive night. On Wednesday night, 64 people sought shelter there. As part of a statewide program to use armories to house the homeless during the winter months, armory doors open when nighttime temperatures drop to 40 degrees or to less than 50 degrees with a 50% chance of rain.

Officials said the armory will probably remain open this weekend.

In addition, 185 people had moved into the two full-time shelters Thursday evening. Wednesday, 210 people slept at the Zoe Christian Center and the Ventura County Rescue Mission.