Chilly Days Expected After Pair of Storms : Weather: Sunny skies with highs in the 50s and nights below freezing are predicted in the wake of Friday’s rainfall.

A pair of Pacific storm fronts that pushed county rain totals above normal and closed mountain roads Friday are expected to send temperatures falling today, with highs reaching only the upper 50s and nighttime temperatures dipping below freezing.

But skies should be mostly sunny, and slightly warmer weather with light Santa Ana winds is expected to move in by Sunday.

The first storm that hit the area before dawn Friday left up to a third of an inch of rain in parts of the county, bringing the countywide average to 128% of normal for this time of year. The second storm moving toward the area Friday evening was expected to drop only about half an inch in Ventura County.

“There should be a break in the action now, possibly with another storm moving in by Christmas,” said Terry Schaeffer, National Weather Service meteorologist in Santa Paula.

Schaeffer said the weather patterns bringing the precipitation are normal for this time of year.

The cold temperatures could bring frost to some of the coldest canyon areas of the county, prompting some growers to crank up wind machines and smudge pots to protect their crops. But temperatures were not expected to fall to critical levels long enough to harm crops.

“We need a little cold weather to slow down the trees’ growth,” said Chris Taylor, vice president of farming at Limoneira near Santa Paula, the largest citrus grower in the county. “We’re just enjoying the clouds coming in and hoping it rains some more.”

The wintry weather has kept the National Guard Armory in Oxnard open as a shelter for the homeless on most nights since Thanksgiving, said Jerry Blesener, deputy director of the county’s Public Social Agency.

The armory opens to the homeless when the temperature drops below 50 degrees or when there is a better than 50% chance of rain. But the American Red Cross, which operates the shelter for the homeless, would like to keep the doors open every night through March.

“People who need the service don’t have any way of knowing whether we have met the criteria and whether we will be open or not,” said Richard Rink, program coordinator for the Ventura County chapter of the Red Cross.

The Red Cross expects to learn Monday whether it will receive a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would allow the shelter to stay open through the winter, he said.

The shelter has been serving about 40 people a night, but Rink said the numbers will rise as temperatures drop through January, until the shelter reaches capacity at 120.

The cold weather also caused problems for the U.S. Forest Service, which closed three roads north of Ojai after snow levels fell below 5,000 feet with the season’s first big storm earlier this week.

“People get stuck in their two-wheel-drive vehicles and the traffic backs up, and we even had fistfights out there last year,” said Charlie Robinson, recreation officer for the Ojai district of Los Padres National Forest. “There have been a lot of accidents with all the blind corners, and we need to keep vehicles off the one-lane roads.”

The Forest Service closed Pine Mountain, Nordhoff and Potrero Seco roads to all motor traffic until further notice, but will continue to allow people to hike back into the recreation areas.

The rain raised local reservoir levels by about 1,000 acre feet at both Lake Piru and Lake Casitas and sent water flowing down the Santa Clara River.

Although rainfall has been above average in Ventura County for the past two years and is above average so far this season, ground water basins in the county still need more rain to make up for the previous five below-average years.

“This nice slow rain helps because it infiltrates into the soil and helps fill up the reservoirs,” said Hassan Kasraie, senior engineer for Ventura County’s Flood Control Department. “But it looks like we need about another 25 inches or so to go back to predrought conditions.”

The rain that has showered Southern California also drenched the northern half of the state and blanketed the mountains with snow. Although reservoirs in the northern Sierra are only at 50% of their normal levels, rain levels have already reached 110% of normal for the time of year.

That compares to a year ago, when reservoir levels were at record low levels and rainfall was only half of normal, said Dee Davis, spokesman at the state Department of Water Resources’ Drought Center in Sacramento.

“The December rains have given us hope that maybe we will not set a record for the most consecutive years of drought,” said Davis, referring to the six-year drought record that was set in the 15th Century.

In normal years, the state DWR supplies the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California with about half of the water it distributes to 15 million people in Southern California, including about 450,000 people in Ventura County.

But so far this year, the state has guaranteed its contractors only 10% of their requests. Davis said the state is considering increasing its promised deliveries, but will not decide that until next month, when officials have a better idea of how the rest of the rainy season is shaping up.

“We don’t want to give people false promises,” he said.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics for 24 hours ending at 9 p.m. Friday from the Ventura County Flood Control District. Rainfall since Oct. 1, the start of the official rain year, is an estimate based on computer updates.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.23 3.09 3.00 Casitas Dam 0.32 4.92 4.75 El Rio .22 4.58 3.03 Fillmore 0.21 5.79 4.31 Moorpark 0.29 3.24 3.15 Ojai 0.22 4.63 4.18 Upper Ojai 0.21 4.86 4.49 Oxnard 0.21 3.82 2.86 Piru 0.21 3.82 2.86 Santa Paula 0.20 5.09 3.83 Simi Valley 0.28 4.27 2.92 Thousand Oaks 0.30 3.50 3.14 Ventura Govt. Center 0.16 4.95 3.21