Mercury Takes a Dive With Arctic Blast

Ventura County’s version of winter arrived Sunday, plunging temperatures 15 to 20 degrees below normal and prompting kids to dust off sleds to take advantage of late-season mountain snow.

“We’re seeing some of the coldest air--if not the coldest air--of the season, coming out of the Gulf of Alaska,” said Joe Dandrea, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard. “It should be cold all week.”

The frigid blast brought with it chilly winds and unstable air that caused showers near the coast, occasional reports of pea-sized hail in the Ojai Valley and snow as low as 2,000 feet in the mountains.

“It’s real snow! Snowflakes, Grandpa,” squealed Brooke Heflin, 8, of Santa Paula as she enjoyed her first snowfall--and first snowball fight--with her grandparents in Los Padres National Forest.

Unusually cold, wet weather swept across California on Sunday, causing icy conditions in San Francisco, briefly closing a stretch of Interstate 5 and boosting snow levels in the state’s biggest ski resorts to almost record levels. The continuing cold snap could drop temperatures near record lows throughout the state over the next few days.

Meanwhile, as the novelty of snow drew Southern Californians to the mountains, the blustery wind cleared the waterfront of all but the hardiest beach-goers.

Brian Buchanan, a Calabasas resident who moved from Philadelphia two months ago, cut a lonely figure as he sat at the deserted outdoor cafe of Pineapples Restaurant in downtown Ventura.

“This is like spring weather--it’s balmy,” he said, sipping a cup of coffee.

Nevertheless, the National Weather Service warned farmers to initiate crop protection procedures Sunday night and tonight, with lows in the upper 20s possible in some inland areas. Indeed, the coldest air behind the front should show up tonight, with temperatures plunging perhaps as low as 27 degrees, agricultural meteorologist Terry Schaeffer said.

But Tony Thacher, an Ojai farmer who grows oranges and tangerines on about 100 acres in Matilija Canyon, anticipated few problems.

“It’s really too late in the year,” he said. “The more mature the fruit is, the more cold it can stand.”

Link Leavens, a manager and partner of Leavens Ranches, which farms 800 acres of citrus fruits and avocado throughout the county, said farmers have another advantage during late-season cold snaps: longer days. Nights at this time of year do not last as long as they do in early winter, preventing lengthy cold periods that can damage crops. But Leavens prepared, just in case.

“We’ve got lots of wind machines that are fired up, batteries charged, ready to go,” he said. “We feel very lucky that it’s February, not January.”

Most lows, though, will range from the mid-30s to lower 40s. Highs are expected to be in the mid-40s to low 50s through Thursday, Dandrea said.

“We’re going to be running about 15 degrees below average, and it won’t surprise me if we had one of those days 20 degrees below normal,” he said.

While the Arctic air is expected to hang around on its Southland vacation, it isn’t anticipated to bring much moisture. Isolated showers will dump perhaps a quarter-inch of rain in spots today and tonight, with more light precipitation likely Wednesday and Thursday. Only a dusting of snow is possible in local mountains above 2,000 feet tonight.

That’s bad news for winter sports enthusiasts, and meant those who ventured into the mountains above Ojai on Sunday probably made the right move.

“We’re just checking it out,” said John Walker, 16, of Santa Barbara, as he and several friends used snowboards to glide down California 33 below the Pine Mountain summit. “We don’t get to see snow all the time.”

Staff writers Richard C. Paddock and Greg Krikorian and correspondent David R. Baker 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 6 p.m. Sunday . 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 0.12 7.97 9.33 Casitas Dam 0.08 14.53 16.59 Casitas Rec. Center 0.04 13.23 16.72 Fillmore 0.16 11.75 13.41 Matilija Dam 0.04 16.82 19.05 Moorpark 0.16 9.30 10.17 Upper Ojai 0.00 12.26 16.27 Oxnard 0.20 8.85 10.22 Piru 0.31 9.31 11.94 Port Hueneme 0.04 6.97 10.02 Santa Paula 0.12 10.48 12.57 Simi Valley 0.12 9.16 9.84 Thousand Oaks 0.12 9.42 10.65 Ventura Govt. Center 0.12 10.36 11.30

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