Simi Valley Runs Hot, Cold as Winter Abruptly Returns

Only a day after residents felt record-level heat, it snowed Wednesday in Simi Valley for the first time in more than a decade.

A quick flurry blew in about 2:30 p.m. and lasted only a few minutes. The white stuff melted within seconds of reaching the ground.

Terri Porter, who was picking up her daughter, Allyson, 5, at Crestview Elementary School, said the snow came “as the kids were coming out of school, and they were so excited and they all started running around screaming with delight.”

Wednesday’s brief snow was a harbinger of colder weather. Farmers throughout Ventura County prepared for what was forecast as the coldest night this winter, with overnight temperatures expected to dip into the mid-20s in some areas.

“We’ve got water running right now, and the heaters and wind machines are out and we’re getting ready to go,” said Link Leavens, general manager of the Leavens Fairview Ranch in Moorpark.

It is expected to be clear and sunny throughout the county today, but colder and windier than normal, said Bruce Rockwell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

Temperatures were forecast in the high 50s and low 60s with winds between 15 and 25 mph. For Friday and Saturday, a 20% chance of rain is expected, Rockwell added.

Wednesday’s snow was Simi’s first since Feb. 8, 1989, when a trace of snow was recorded, Rockwell said.

On Tuesday, the mercury reached 85 degrees, tying a record set in 1980.

“It went from winter to summer to winter,” Rockwell said.

Elsewhere in the county, a trace of rain fell in several cities Wednesday, and there were reports of sleet in Camarillo and snow at 2,000 feet in the Santa Monica Mountains.

There is a 60% chance of snow as low as 2,000 feet today, according to Byron Morton, a meteorologist at Wisconsin-based Weather Central Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times.

In Lockwood Valley, where it was 33 degrees at 3 p.m. Wednesday, police reported a major ice storm earlier in the day.

“It was heavy this morning, and we had cars careening off the road,” said Dave Gasaway, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy who patrols the back country.

At least six cars spun out on ice-covered Lockwood Valley Road, Gasaway said. No major injuries were reported.

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Correspondents Catherine Blake and Nancy Needham contributed to this report.