Rain Causes Residents to Alter Plans for Outdoors : Weather: Minor accidents abound amid precipitation due to what was once Hurricane Darby. Conditions may persist until Wednesday.

Unseasonable July rains that rolled through Ventura County on Sunday surprised area residents, causing an unusual number of fender-benders on local roads and forcing many people to improvise rather than cancel planned outdoor activities.

The rains, a remnant of last week’s Hurricane Darby, took their toll on weekend activities, as evidenced by empty beaches and parks in much of the county.

The moisture, drizzle and high humidity may hang around at least until Wednesday, said Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which charts weather patterns for The Times.

The storm moved north from the Mexican coast and, instead of dying in the Pacific Ocean, as most storms do, settled along the California coast, Burback said.

“There’s no air or wind flow right now” to completely diffuse Darby, he said.

A California Highway Patrol dispatcher reported 16 accidents on Ventura County freeways between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday, most of them “minor fender-benders.”

Most of the crashes occurred on the Ventura Freeway, with six reported on the Conejo Grade leading into and out of Thousand Oaks, said CHP dispatcher Sharon Daniels.

“I’m sure a lot of the people were distracted by the roads being slippery from the rain,” Daniels said.

No major injuries were reported.

Rainfall totals varied throughout the county, with Ventura reporting .21 inches between 4 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Santa Paula reporting .17 inches and Ojai .14 inches, Burback said.

Before the skies cleared late Sunday afternoon, many county residents--from Sears, Roebuck and Co. employees running an outdoor sale in the parking lot of the Esplanade shopping mall in Oxnard to a Ventura family selling their wares in a tiny garage sale--weren’t about to let a bit of precipitation stop them.

Margaret Summers, a manager at Sears, was ready when rain began falling on the store’s parking lot sale Sunday morning. She began directing employees to move some smaller items inside and cover larger items such as furniture and appliances with plastic tarpaulins and blankets stockpiled in advance.

“Oh yeah, we had plans for this,” Summers said. “We have a joke that every time we hold a parking lot sale we’re doing our little bit to help out the drought.”

Kerry Knoll, 29, of Ventura was prepared when the rain came as he was holding what he called a spontaneous garage sale prompted by his recent decision to move to Florida.

Speaking from a large red-and-white tent he assembled over his driveway when the rain started, Knoll said the weather had probably diminished revenues, “but not too much. I think Friday and Saturday are just better days for this sort of thing.”

Rain may be bad for garage sales, but it hardly affects home sales, several real estate agents said.

“I don’t think the weather will affect me at all,” said Harrick and Co. agent Sandie Webb, who was hosting an open house at her own Hyland Avenue home Sunday afternoon. “What else do people have to do on a day like today?”

She noted that although the ocean view from her two-story dwelling high above the Pacific was marred by the low-lying clouds, that could be in her favor. “If a customer enjoys a home--its style and view or what have you--on a gloomy day like today, it will look even better to them on a nice, sunny day,” she said.

Usually, surfers take pleasure in storms such as Darby. Swells were in the six-foot range last week, providing reasonably good surfing conditions along Ventura County’s coastline. But on Sunday, lifeguards reported waves of only a couple of feet and few surfers.

The weather also took a toll on golfers in many parts of the county, with umbrellas de rigueur at area courses. “In the afternoon, we definitely had less people,” said Bob Jennings, an assistant pro at Soule Golf Course in Ojai.

Golfers with early morning tee times played, Jennings said, and the course was busy until early afternoon. But “there were some cancellations,” he said.

“Our afternoon and twilight play just fell apart because of the rain.”

Much the same story was reported at golf courses in Ventura and Fillmore, which reported fewer golfers than normal for a Sunday afternoon.

In the eastern part of Ventura County, the rains dissipated by early afternoon, although gloomy skies prevailed.

“We’re very busy. It’s not raining out here,” said Jill Gay, pro shop attendant at Westlake Village Golf Course.

Although showers fell on the course early Sunday morning, Gay said she was unaware of any golfers canceling out.

Thousand Oaks Toyota on East Thousand Oaks Boulevard reported large crowds and good sales Sunday despite the mist and light drizzle that rolled over the car lot intermittently through the afternoon.

“If anything, rain improves the business,” said telephone operator Kathy Smith. “I have no idea why, but it just seems that whenever it rains we get more people in here.”

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Times staff writer Ron Soble contributed to this report.