Bulk of Storm Expected to Hit County Today

The latest winter storm was expected to hit the Ventura County coastline early today, and bring with it up to three-quarters of an inch of rain, weather analysts said Monday.

Although the offshore squall dumped traces of rain across Ventura and Oxnard on Monday afternoon, the bulk of the precipitation was expected overnight and through this morning.

“This rain is going to be stretched out over a pretty good period,” said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. “But we’ll see decreasing cloudiness by the afternoon and it should be mostly clear by Wednesday.”

Seto blamed the rain on an offshore system that was due to collide early today with the so-called Pineapple Express, a tropical storm that already moved across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii.

Most of the rain Monday afternoon missed Ventura County, with showers reported in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Seto said.

But up to 1.5 inches of rain was expected to fall in the mountainous areas of Ventura County overnight, pushing seasonal totals closer to the yearly averages, he said.

“It’s pretty average except for the pineapple connection,” he said. “But if it hadn’t been for those four inches of rain in February, we’d be way behind normal. This has still been a pretty mild season for us.”

Forecasts throughout the week call for clearing skies and daytime high temperatures increasing to the mid-60s.