Rainfall 60% of Normal for Season : Weather: The outlook for January remains dry and high temperatures are expected into next week. Water reserves are adequate, experts say.

Ventura County’s rainfall is registering 60% of normal for this time of year with no hope for rain this month, meteorologists said Thursday.

Forecasters are calling for continuing dry, warm weather, with temperatures running up to 10 degrees above normal throughout the county. The county’s high on Thursday was in El Rio and east Ventura, where temperatures reached 83. Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks registered in the high 70s and Ojai had a high of 81.

Light Santa Ana winds from the east are expected to die down today, making way for an onshore sea breeze that will cool temperatures slightly. But the above-normal readings are expected to resume Sunday with the help of east winds.

A persistent high-pressure ridge has moved in just offshore, deflecting winter storms that would otherwise break up the current dry and warm pattern, meteorologists said.

“There is a whole series of storms in the western Pacific,” said Constantine Pashos, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “But this ridge is preventing any storms from hitting the coast. They bounce off and go up to the northwest.

“Until it moves, we won’t be getting any rain in the Ventura County area,” he said.

Despite the lack of rainfall this month, ground-water specialists said underground basins and above-ground reservoirs throughout the county remain in good shape after two winters of drought-breaking storms.

“There is no immediate cause for concern,” said John Weikel, hydrographer for the Ventura County Flood Control District. “It takes several years to deplete the supply.”

Weikel said it is common for the county to experience dry weeks in the middle of otherwise wet years.

“We’ve had several instances in recent wet years of two, three or four weeks without any rain,” he said. “February is usually the wettest month of the year and we’re hoping things will turn around by then and bring us back to normal levels.”

The dry January has caused farmers to activate irrigation systems and begin pumping ground water at a time of year when underground basins are usually filling with rainfall, said Earl McPhail, Ventura County agricultural commissioner.

“The crops will be fine because we’re irrigating,” McPhail said. “But we usually like to let Mother Nature take care of the watering this time of year.”

Growers and cities on the Oxnard Plain and along the Santa Clara River pump about 250,000 acre-feet a year from the ground, more than what rainwater alone can replenish in most years.

But heavy rainfall during the last two winters allowed the United Water Conservation District to capture a record 120,000 acre-feet at the Freeman Diversion Dam on the Santa Clara River near Saticoy.

That water is diverted to “spreading grounds,” where it can soak down into the underground basins, said Frederick J. Gientke, manager of the United Water Conservation District.

“We’re going into what is up to now a dry year after spreading water (to refill basins) almost continuously for a couple of years,” Gientke said. “We’re pleased with the condition of the ground-water basins.”

Gientke said the district’s reservoir at Lake Piru is also in good shape with about 45,000 acre-feet, almost half full. That compares to drought years when the reservoir was down to 20,000 acre-feet, he said.

“We’re real upbeat about this,” Gientke said.

Kent Field, a meteorologist with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, said the weather has been ideal to keep air pollution levels low. Air quality has stayed steadily in the very good range, he said.

Field agreed with other weather forecasters calling for more pleasantly warm and dry weather. “Look at it this way: This is probably one of the nicest places to be right now in the whole country,” he said.

County Rainfall

Ventura County’s rainfall total is 60% of normal for this time of year, according to the county Flood Control District. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

Normal Percentage Rainfall Rainfall of normal Location to date to date to date Camarillo 2.01 3.53 57% Casitas Dam 3.46 5.68 61% El Rio 2.60 3.59 72% Fillmore 2.49 5.04 49% Moorpark 2.10 3.68 57% Ojai 2.77 4.98 56% Upper Ojai 3.43 5.32 64% Oxnard 1.67 3.41 49% Piru 2.39 4.07 59% Santa Paula 2.71 4.50 60% Simi Valley 2.43 3.69 66% Thousand Oaks 2.55 3.44 74% Ventura Govt. Center 2.51 3.81 66%