Wet Blanket

The blast of Arctic rain that swept through Ventura County on Monday dumped a foot of snow over the back country, wetted cities with half an inch of rain, and had growers praising the late-season watering.

Rainfall totals ranged from slightly over an inch in Santa Paula to about 0.47 of an inch across the fertile Oxnard Plain. Simi Valley logged 0.59 of an inch.

Showers were expected to diminish Monday night, followed by clear and brisk weather today with highs in the mid- to upper-50s. Wednesday will be slightly warmer, with highs in the mid-60s. Another storm out of the Gulf of Alaska could arrive by late Friday or Saturday morning, said Dennis Tussey, a National Weather Service forecaster.

Monday’s rain fell heavily in the morning, causing a couple dozen fender-benders and some minor street flooding across the county, authorities said. But overall, it was “a good, healthy storm,” said Dolores Taylor, senior engineer in Ventura County’s Flood Control Department.

Area farmers heartily agreed.

“Please! Give me more!” said Ed Terry, who grows peppers and celery on 1,300 acres in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo and has irrigated more frequently in this dry year. Rain water is “sweeter” than irrigated water because it flushes vegetable-damaging salts out of the soil, Terry said.

Rainfall is just 40% of normal for this time of year. For instance, more than 11 inches on average falls on Oxnard in a year, but less than half of that has fallen so far. But no one is fretting, after five years of plentiful rainfall, including last winter’s 40-inch El NiNo deluge, said Robin Jester, a flood control hydrologist.

“Considering what we’ve had over the past five years, we’re OK. We’ve been pretty wet, and the snowpack in Northern California is pretty good,” Jester said.

The chilly storm brought loads of snow to the Lockwood Valley at Ventura County’s northern edge. A dispatcher at the Lockwood Valley sheriff’s substation estimated that a foot of snow had fallen by 2 p.m., with snow levels at about 2,000 feet.

No Ventura County highways were closed, because Caltrans crews scooped the slush off higher-elevation highways as it fell, said Cindy Chilton, a dispatcher at the county maintenance office.

In Santa Barbara County, California 154 was closed more than five hours as Caltrans removed tons of snow near the San Marcos Pass. One resident reported that the area received up to 8 inches of snow, a Caltrans dispatcher said. Travelers on the highway pulled to the side of the road to wait out the road work, he said.

The storm brought a rare dusting of snow to the green hills around Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley.

“I went out and let it fall on my head,” said Solvang Mayor Leo Mathiasen, a 39-year resident of the town known for kitschy faux-Danish architecture, butter cookies and rolling hills. “I don’t think I actually stuck out my tongue. But it was quite an occasion.”

Iliana Faraldo’s task, along with other teachers at KinderCare preschool in Thousand Oaks, was to entertain 125 squirmy youngsters. The adults prepare for rain days as if planning battle, said Faraldo, assistant director at the center. Their munitions include puzzles, Play-doh, books, music and lots of art projects.

When all else fails, teachers open a window to let the kids peek at the rain and gulp the fresh air, she said.

It’s not too difficult to manage the children for one day, but if a storm goes on for two or three days, it gets ugly, Faraldo quipped.

“They all just want to go out and stomp in the puddles. But we can’t let them,” she said.