New Storm Expected to Taper Off Today

The fourth storm in a week was predicted to roll into Ventura County late Sunday night and continue through Monday morning, dropping perhaps a half-inch of rain.

The rainfall is expected to taper off in the early afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Although the mountains could receive up to an inch of rain from the storm, forecasters predicted the storm would pale in comparison to the soakers that hit the county last week.

“It’s weakening as it moves over Southern California, so rainfall totals don’t look to be all that much,” weather specialist Stuart Seto said.

After months of little or no rain, the county’s current wet weather is normal for the season, Seto said. The weather’s recent change, he said, is due to a weakening of the high-pressure systems that, earlier in the winter, channeled storms well to the north.

Last week’s storms dropped about two inches of rain throughout the southern half of the county and twice that much in the mountains.

The rain kept fire officials watching local hillsides for mudslides. Last week, the county Fire Department warned homeowners near a slope along North Ventura Avenue in Oak View that the hillside could start to slide.

But Charles Sitton, captain of Fire Station No. 23 in Oak View, said the slope had not noticeably shifted by Sunday.

“It’s just exactly where we left it,” he said.