Rain Falls Along With Temperatures

Light showers and below-normal temperatures sent a chill through Ventura County on Thursday.

And although the clouds are expected to lift this afternoon, the clearing may send temperatures down further, said Terry Schaeffer, an agricultural meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

“The more clearing, the more heat is allowed to escape,” he said. “At the extreme, it could get down to the upper 20s” tonight.

“Our normal temperatures would be in the mid-60s, but this isn’t that unusual. This is December, after all.”

Temperatures on Thursday hovered in the middle 50s to low 60s and were expected to fall to the low 40s to upper 30s overnight before climbing back up to the 50s today, Schaeffer said.

The same storm from the Gulf of Alaska that brought the lower temperatures also brought rain.

Scattered showers throughout the day Thursday were expected to intensify into a heavier downpour overnight.

Rainfall Thursday ranged from a trace in Ojai to a third of an inch in Oxnard, forecasters said.

“I think the showers will probably linger on into the morning hours and gradually decrease and become more scattered and end sometime in the afternoon,” Schaeffer said, adding that he expected a total of one-half to one inch of rain by the end of today.