2 Storms Hint at Relief in Unusually Dry Rainy Season

About this time last year, Ventura County farmers were working hard to salvage their crops after torrential rainstorms flooded fields and gutted groves.

This year, farmers are laboring just to keep their crops irrigated in an unusually dry rainy season, though they were counting on relief today in the form of an expected shower.

“We’re better off than we were last year at this time, when we had too much rain,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “But now we don’t have enough. I wish it could be somewhere in the middle for once.”

The Ventura County Government Center has received about 2.48 inches of rain since July 1--far less than the 13.8-inch average for the period, according to WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

However, this week may bring good news to the agricultural community: There is a 50% chance of light rains today and a greater possibility that a more powerful storm will douse the county over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“This one doesn’t look like a strong one, because it doesn’t have the upper-level [atmospheric] support,” said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. “But the one later in the week could bring more rain.”

If it strikes at all, today’s storm could bring winds of up to 20 mph and leave behind less than an inch of rain, Seto said. Meteorologists on Monday were still unsure how much rain the later storm, expected to hit late Friday or Saturday, would shower upon the county.

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Although local farmers have not had to endure havoc-wreaking rainstorms so far this year, the lack of rainfall has forced many growers to irrigate--a sometimes costly procedure.

Depending on their location in the county and what water network they are tied into, farmers can pay from $50 to $400 for an acre-foot of water, Laird said. An acre-foot is roughly enough water to cover an acre of land a foot deep.

“Other than the cattle industry, I’m not aware of anyone that has really suffered from the lack of rain,” Laird said. “But that doesn’t take into account the cost of irrigation, which can add up for some farmers.”

David E. Koonce, who runs a 30-acre avocado grove near Santa Paula, said rains soaked the ground so thoroughly last winter that he did not have to water his crops until March. But Koonce, who uses a computerized monitoring system to gauge the moistness of the soil around his avocado trees, said he has already had to irrigate this year.

“When we don’t get rain, we have to irrigate, and that means our crops cost more,” Koonce said. “Irrigation and labor are our main costs.”

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Less rain means more business for water providers such as the Camrosa Water District, which supplies the Santa Rosa Valley. Richard Hajas, the district’s general manager, said the district is poised to sell 700 to 800 acre-feet of water this month--more than twice its usual amount for this time of year.

“The first couple weeks of the year are usually our lowest period, but this year it’s been the same as October,” Hajas said. “There’s no doubt, we’re doing good business.”

Rainfall in Southern California is down for the current rain year, according to WeatherData, which measures from July 1, 1995, to June 30 as the rain year.

However, the region’s reservoirs are still running high, experts say, partly because of last year’s great rains and partly because of increased public awareness about water conservation.