Storm Brings More Moisture Than Expected to the County : Weather: The fast-moving front dumps over a third of an inch in some areas. The rainfall, however, will only have a slight effect on the drought.

Forecasters had predicted only a slight chance of rain, but a storm that swept across Ventura County Wednesday left behind more than a third of an inch at some locations and dusted the higher mountains with snow.

“It intensified more than we expected,” Marty McKewon, a forecaster for WeatherData Inc., said. “We were calling for just a chance, and not even a good chance.”

The fast-moving storm, which officials said caused no major accidents, flooding or mudslides, began before dawn and was over by early afternoon.

Although more than expected, the rainfall will have only a slight effect on the drought, said John Weikel, a Ventura County Flood Control Department hydrologist.

“We need about three feet of water before we can talk about alleviating the drought,” he said. “The only benefit is, people will stop watering their lawns for a few days, farmers can stop irrigating for a couple of days. So it has a small benefit on the water supply.”

Wednesday’s rainfall was measured at 0.31 inches at the County Government Center in Ventura; 0.35 inches at Nordhoff Peak north of Ojai; 0.28 at Moorpark College in Moorpark; and 0.24 in Santa Paula, Fillmore and Thousand Oaks, Weikel said.

To ease the drought, he said, the county will need several more storms similar to the two-day soaker last week that dropped nearly two inches in lowland areas and as much as four inches in the mountains.

“That was ideal,” Weikel said. “If we could have a storm like that once a week between now and May, we’d be in a lot better shape.”

Snow was reported in the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest in the northern half of the county. A spokesman at the county’s Rose Valley Work Camp, 3,300 feet above sea level, said he could see snow on mountain ridges about 4,500 feet up.

But California 33, the only road through the area, remained open, the California Highway Patrol said.

A spokeswoman at Pine Mountain Club, a few miles north of the Ventura County line at the 5,000-foot level, said about two inches of “very wet, slushy snow” had fallen at the resort and higher elevations had 4 to 5 inches.

For today, McKewon predicted partly cloudy skies in the morning, clearing to sunny in the afternoon, with highs in the low to mid-60s. Tonight’s lows will range from the upper 30s to mid 40s, he said.

A new storm system is expected to bring clouds to the area Saturday. But McKewon said there is only a slight chance of rain.