Off-White Christmas : Storm Brings Snow to Mountains and a Welcome Gift to Farms

Christmas in Ventura County may not be white, but residents got a tease of it Saturday when a winter storm dusted local mountains with snow.

The storm that moved in Friday night also dropped more than half an inch of rain in many areas, cheering farmers but troubling the California Highway Patrol, which reported several fender benders and at least two major accidents.

Snow fell as low as 3,000 feet, prompting flocks of county residents to head for the mountains for the first romp of the season in the cold, white stuff.

Meteorologists expect another storm to roll in from the Pacific this evening, bringing more rain and large ocean swells on Christmas Day.

“It looks like a pretty good chance of showers and cloudy skies on Christmas,” said Joe Dandrea of the National Weather Service. “The storm appears to have a lot of moisture to work with.”

But that forecast pleased Ventura County growers, including Link Leavens, who called Saturday morning’s rain a gift from heaven for his citrus and avocado trees.

“Rain on Christmas is as good a Christmas present as a farmer could get,” said Leavens, a partner at Leavens Ranches, which has more than 800 acres of citrus and avocado trees.

Growers were unperturbed about the plunging mercury, which bottomed at 38 degrees early Saturday in Fillmore. Farmers said that as long as temperatures stayed safely above freezing, they would not have to drag out their smudge pots to keep the orchards warm.

“We are going to have partly cloudy skies, so the temperature will not be extremely cold,” said Tom Pecht, an Oxnard grower and board member of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

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More disturbed were the sales clerks at Ventura’s Farmers’ Market, who said only half the usual number of shoppers braved the frosty weather to pick over the fresh produce at the stalls in the city’s downtown.

“Everybody is at home in bed or in front of the fireplace if they’re smart,” said 24-year-old Tracie Derwin of Solvang, who added that she had to take down one of the umbrellas covering her apple stand to avoid wind-related accidents.

But many people decided that the chance to play in the snow outweighed cozy fires. Karen Djernaes, who had stopped along California 33 above Rose Valley, watched her husband and 7-year-old son hurl snowballs at each other.

“It’s hard to be Scandinavian and not get to see the snow all the time,” said Djernaes, a Ventura resident. “So when we saw the snow, we got up and packed the van.”

In La Conchita, where a 600,000-ton landslide crushed residences and flooded streets with debris during storms nine months ago, residents kept close watch on the sagging hillside for signs of further movement.

“It seemed like it took the rain pretty well,” said Warren Bateman, a 62-year-old retired lighting gaffer, whose $420,000 house sustained heavy cracks during the March 4 disaster. “Nobody seems to be too alarmed.”

Ventura’s landmark pier, which lost 420 feet 1 1/2 weeks ago when monster waves pummeled the structure, was not damaged in the latest storm. Although swells associated with the next forecast storm are expected to reach 10 to 12 feet, meteorologists said they should not endanger the battered structure.

“I don’t think the waves are big enough that they will pose any problems to the pier,” meteorologist Rea Strange said.

Across Ventura County, roads began clogging with holiday traffic early Friday and became even more crowded Saturday. The CHP said slick asphalt and cloudy visibility triggered several fender benders.

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Although the CHP has yet to determine if the weather caused the two major accidents Friday night, officers said the accidents might eventually be blamed on wetness and poor visibility.

A 16-year-old was in serious condition Saturday at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard after his car smashed into a tree in Camarillo on Friday.

And Rik Ramsdel, a 26-year-old Camarillo resident, was hospitalized with a fractured arm after a car making a left turn struck his vehicle Friday.

Staff writer Christina Lima and photographer Spencer Weiner contributed to this report.