Winter Water Land : Break in Showers Expected Today, but More Storms on the Way

Sporadic showers from dull, gray skies continued Friday, dumping more than an inch on parts of Ventura County, washing out trails for off-road recreational vehicles and forcing students to play indoors.

The week’s spate of storms, which already have drenched the northern part of Ventura County with as much as four inches of rain, was expected to break today but to start again Sunday and Monday.

Another storm is brewing in the Bering Sea off Alaska and is due to hit late next week.

“We’re moving into a prolonged wet weather cycle,” said Terry Schaeffer, National Weather Service meteorologist in Santa Paula.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a Wichita-based firm that provides forecasts for The Times, said the storm that moved out Friday evening was the first in a series of at least three due by the middle of next week.

“That next one looks like it’s got quite a bit of rain, maybe as much as three inches in some parts of Southern California,” Burback said.

Partly cloudy skies with high temperatures in the mid- to low 60s and low temperatures in the 40s are forecast for today, with patchy fog predicted for much of the area, Schaeffer said.

The California Highway Patrol reported numerous fender-benders throughout the day Friday but no major accidents.

The U. S. Coast Guard also reported no storm-related incidents.

Many Los Angeles-area freeways, including the Ventura Freeway, were snarled by the rain.

Storm drains east of Woodland Hills near Winnetka Avenue backed up, causing minor flooding.

Since the rain started Wednesday, Santa Paula has received 1.81 inches while Piru, Simi Valley, Ventura, and Thousand Oaks got slightly less, according to the Ventura County Flood Control District.

The Matilija Reservoir north of Ojai has gotten a “quite a bit” of rain and runoff since Wednesday, said Steve Wickstrum, Ventura County senior civil engineer.

The Casitas Dam south of Ojai, however, got very little.

More than four inches of rain have fallen near Hungry Valley, one of the county’s rainiest areas, Wickstrum said.

The rain washed away portions of the 74 miles of trails in the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area, just over the border in Los Angeles County, forcing rangers to close portions of the 20,000-acre park.

“We had to close the south entrance of the park,” said Chief Ranger Rey Monge.

Rangers plan to mark the damaged areas to warn park visitors.

Monge said it usually takes an average of two days to repair washed out trails.

The rain also forced schoolchildren and their teachers to stay indoors, trying the patience of both.

At McKevett School in Santa Paula, first-graders played musical instruments after lunch, said student teacher Conrad Saturnino.

“They all sit on the carpet and play the tambourine, beat wooden sticks together or the maracas,” he said of his 30 charges. “You have to give them a lot more activities to let off steam.”

Schoolchildren weren’t the only ones who felt confined.

“Everybody is staying in their berths,” said Tim Daniels, a Channel Islands Harbor Patrol officer, referring to the boats in Oxnard Harbor.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are current rain statistics from the Ventura County Flood Control District.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Thursday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.68 6.86 7.87 Casitas Dam 0.39 9.94 13.63 El Rio 0.78 7.65 8.71 Fillmore 1.15 8.53 11.04 Moorpark 0.76 7.24 8.52 Ojai n/a n/a n/a Upper Ojai 0.58 10.66 13.12 Oxnard 0.74 7.76 8.39 Piru 1.44 9.22 9.93 Port Hueneme 1.09 7.58 8.24 Santa Paula 1.60 8.96 10.23 Simi Valley 1.43 8.44 8.19 Thousand Oaks 1.09 8.48 8.82 Ventura Govt. Center 0.87 7.61 9.28