1st of 2 Storms Soaks County : Weather: Some farmers are pleased and surfers love the swells, but a second, stronger system with more rain and high winds could mean trouble.

After months of pristine skies and sunny weather, the first of two winter rainstorms rolled into Ventura County on Tuesday, soaking fields, slicking streets and pummeling the coastline with surf up to 10 feet high.

The storm system, which caused chaos and damage in northern and central California on Monday, was expected to dump up to 1.5 inches of rain and unleash 15-mph to 25-mphwinds on Ventura County by this morning, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Ojai and other mountainous county areas were expected to receive twice that much rain, said meteorologist Tim McClung, and the National Weather Service issued a small stream flood advisory for those regions. It also issued a wind advisory for Ventura County’s coastal valleys and a heavy surf warning.

“It’s the first decent storm of this winter,” McClung said. “And the other storm may be stronger.”

The second storm, expected to reach an already-drenched Ventura County on Friday, may add up to two more inches of rain. In short, meteorologists are forecasting a chilly, wet week, with low temperatures in the 40s and 50s and monster swells for the surfing set.

“We love it,” said 18-year-old Dave Graham, staring out onto the choppy waves at Surfers Point in Ventura. “I’ve waited nine months for this.”

Not everyone was thrilled about the surf, however. The Mr. Manson Dredge, a ship clearing silt from the opening of Ventura Harbor, had to move inside the calmer waterway after the waves grew too unruly.

“It slowed us down, but we’re still going,” said Frank Bechtolt, the dredging project manager. “We’ve moved in quite a way, and we’re still dredging. It’ll probably fill in the hole we already dug, and we’ll have to do this again.”

And Tuesday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard was searching for a missing 16-year-old Camarillo surfer who was last seen by his friends in the 6-foot waves off a beach north of Ventura.

The California Highway Patrol reported nearly three dozen minor traffic accidents on Ventura County’s slick roads Tuesday night.

“Its been really busy but there have been no major accidents,” said CHP Communications Officer Dan Rehart. “Mostly, they’ve been minor injury or no injury accident related to the weather--spinouts, vehicles over the side or into a ditch.”

At Pep Boys in Thousand Oaks, those who had put off plans to change sun-warped wiper blades paid for their procrastination by waiting in long lines. The auto parts store, which usually sells two or three wiper blades a day, had already sold 60 by Tuesday afternoon, said assistant manager Bob Betancourt.

“These people wait until the last minute every time,” Betancourt said. “Just before the rain, they start pouring in here.”

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said the rainy season can be a blessing or a curse for local growers.

“It all depends what commodity you’re in,” Laird said. “Some people, like the cattlemen, are very anxious to get as much rain as they can. From a strawberry grower’s point of view, just enough to muddy things is a nuisance.”

Nevertheless, even some strawberry growers said that rain is a welcome sight this early in the crop season.

“We’ve been waiting for this,” said Lucky Westwood, business manager at Rio Mesa Farms, a strawberry grower. “This is good, as long as it doesn’t flood.”

Chris Taylor, vice president of Limoneira Associates, the biggest lemon grower in Ventura County, also said his industry can benefit from some rain.

“We’re just hoping it’s a slow, steady rain,” he said. “It’s good at this time of the season. It washes the dust off the leaves, and it flushes the salt that accumulates in the soil.”

Rea Strange of Pacific Weather Analysis in Montecito has tracked the storm since it formed Dec. 9 over the Pacific Ocean just north of Kamchatka. Since then, he said, it has intensified and swirled across the sea to Northern California, stirring up huge swells along the way.

Traveling as far as 1,500 miles, those waves will pound Ventura County beaches today before tapering off Thursday--a drastic change from fall’s uncharacteristically dinky surf, he said.

“We’ve had a lake out there for the past two months,” he said. “It has been the calmest fall that I’ve ever seen.”

Authorities were monitoring the seaside community of La Conchita for mudslides Tuesday evening, trying to determine whether the ground would move once again as it did earlier this year. Things looked pretty solid throughout Tuesday night, said Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Logan.

“We always have contingency plans for La Conchita,” he said. “We constantly keep an eye on that situation. So far, there is no reason to worry.”

Staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss and correspondent Stephanie Brommer contributed to this story.

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.24 035 3.07 Casitas Dam 0.55 0.72 4.87 El Rio NA NA 3.10 Fillmore 0.28 0.48 4.40 Moorpark 0.16 0.27 3.21 Ojai 0.59 0.70 4.28 Upper Ojai 0.83 1.00 4.59 Oxnard 0.24 0.35 2.93 Piru 0.16 0.18 3.52 Santa Paula 0.24 0.39 3.91 Simi Valley 0.28 0.34 2.98 Thousand Oaks 0.20 0.27 3.21 Ventura Govt. Center 0.63 0.81 2.95

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* OCEAN MOTION: How, whence and why swells reach county beaches. B2