Residents Head Outdoors as Bad Weather Breaks

Ventura County residents can expect to enjoy a little drying-out time starting today as forecasters predict partly cloudy, partly sunny weather through Thursday.

Following a record-setting week of heavy rains and flooding, Ventura County residents wasted little time getting out into the broken sunshine Sunday, filling the beaches and parks and generally reveling in their ability to go outdoors without getting soaked.

Along the coast, beachcombers took advantage of the new storm-churned pickings of rocks, shells and debris deposited there by the high-powered waves that have pounded the area. The storm-damaged municipal piers at Port Hueneme and Ventura remained closed but apparently did not suffer any additional damage, police spokesmen said.

“You folks will enjoy some time to dry out a little,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., a private firm that provides forecasts for The Times. “You saw a little hit-and-miss precipitation Sunday--but very little to speak of. The system that’s over you now is very fast moving.”

Brack said that, unlike the storm that dropped so much rain last week, the weather pattern over Ventura County is being hastened along by the northern track of the jet stream and will be decidedly drier.

Last week’s moisture-laden storms were being propelled by the southern, warmer side of the fast-moving highway of air that transits North America.

Daytime temperatures are expected to hover in the high 50s to low 60s while overnight lows will stay in the high 40s.

Forecasters said that, despite the dry weather, the storm’s remnants have stirred the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, with eight-foot swells continuing through tonight out of the west. U.S. Coast Guard officials said a small-craft advisory for all channel waters will remain in effect through tonight.

But Brack cautioned against county residents putting away their umbrellas too soon as long-range forecasts indicate that a new Gulf of Alaska-bred system is expected to hit the area Friday, bringing with it new showers.

“We believe your next chance of rain will be Friday,” Brack said. “It’s impossible to say at this point how strong it will be, but it doesn’t look terribly powerful. However that could change.”