Light Rain Expected From Cold Winter Storm

What one forecaster calls the coldest winter storm to hit Ventura County in two years will bring light rain today and force some inland farmers to protect fragile crops from chilly temperatures.

Even small hail in the mountains and waterspouts off the coast are possible late today, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures will remain 5 to 10 degrees below seasonal norms through the end of the weekend, said Bruce Rockwell, with the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.

“It looks like for the next two or three days, it’s going to be on the cold side,” he said. “We’re getting a shot of cold air from the north and that creates unstable weather.”

Although light showers began spreading across the county Thursday afternoon, the bulk of the moisture is expected to fall today.

Still, rainfall will be spotty and not particularly heavy, with amounts unlikely to exceed half an inch--and most areas seeing less than that, said Guy Pearson, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a private company that provides forecasts for The Times.

“It will be a lot like the previous two rains on Tuesday and then back on Saturday,” he said.

The culprit is a cold front moving down the state from the Gulf of Alaska that is colliding with a tropical plume of moisture coming from the southwest over the Pacific Ocean, he said. Rainfall amounts will depend on how much the two hook up, he added.

Breezy 10- to 20-mph winds and heavy surf up to 8 feet high on west-facing beaches will accompany the rain. Even higher sets are possible Saturday, Rockwell said.

The precipitation should revert to showers tonight that could linger into Saturday as the cloudiness gradually decreases.

Highs today and Saturday will generally be in the low to mid-60s, although some areas could struggle to get out of the 50s, Pearson said.

Nighttime temperatures will drop to the mid-40s to low 50s tonight in most areas.

But temperatures could fall below freezing in some inland areas of the Santa Clara, Los Posas and Ojai valleys, sending lemon and avocado growers scrambling to crank up wind machines and sprinklers to protect their fragile crops.

Those temperatures will be the coldest seen since the winter of 1996, said Terry Schaeffer, a Santa Paula-based meteorologist who specializes in providing forecasts for the agricultural industry.

“This is a garden variety winter cold snap,” he said. “Plants are going to be in for a big surprise here.”

Homeowners in valley areas susceptible to frigid temperatures could also find their late-season tomato plants zapped, Schaeffer said.

Snow levels could fall to as low as 3,000 feet tonight and hamper motorists traveling over such passes as the Grapevine on the Golden State Freeway.

Another shot of moisture is possible Sunday, although the weather pattern is showing signs of bringing an end to the sequence of storms.

“You guys should have some pleasant weather within the next week or so for longer stretches,” Pearson said.